868. In Honor of Katherine Woodward Thomas: Breaking Patterns + Becoming Your Future Self

7 May 2026 · 1 h 13 min · 27 chapters

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In short

Tribute episode honoring Katherine Woodward Thomas, focusing on “breaking patterns” and “becoming your future self.” Core ideas include: healing is “domain of the past,” while transformation is oriented toward the future; recurring patterns persist because of “source fracture stories” (identity-level default interpretations) and “missing development” (unlearned emotional regulation/relational skills). She argues patterns aren’t just “healing,” but require active development into the person who can sustain the desired future.

Guest backgrounds

Katherine Woodward Thomas was an author and pioneer in relationship and personal-growth work. She wrote Calling in the One, Conscious Uncoupling, and What’s True About You. She previously struggled with a severe eating disorder in her 20s, later doing about 12 years of inner work. She also referenced Janine Roth’s work (e.g., Women, Food and God; Breaking Free from Emotional Eating).

Key claims

“Consciousness is relational,” and insights liberate both speaker and listener. “Missing development” blocks “we-ness” skills (emotional regulation, vulnerability, conflict repair, asking for needs). Source fracture stories are shame-based and get reinforced in the present through one’s responses. To shift, start from a positive possible future identity, then identify the bodily feelings and the younger-self belief, mentor that part (“fairy godparent”), and use “power statements.”

Notable examples

She described gratitude “on her knees” after gaining traction with her eating disorder, then creating creative-writing workshops for homeless people on Skid Row. She gave an example of invisibility attracting narcissists, and a workshop example where a participant reframed “I can’t speak up” into “I won’t speak up because I’m unwilling to risk someone being angry.”

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Pioneering Consciousness and Personal Growth

1:32 to 3:24

Katherine discusses her journey and the importance of forging paths in personal growth.

“Well, I'm really happy to be here because I don't usually get to talk to younger people.”

The Connection Between Eating Disorders and Spirituality

3:24 to 4:25

Exploration of the relationship between overcoming eating disorders and deeper spiritual growth.

“But with the eating disorder piece, it's so interesting because I was reflecting on something recently where I was thinking about some of the most powerful female teachers and leaders.”

Liberation and Service: A Personal Story

4:25 to 6:01

Katherine shares her personal story of liberation from an eating disorder through service to others.

“spiritual discovery to deeper growth and transformation.”

Facing Doubts as a Pioneer in Consciousness

6:01 to 8:17

Discussion about the challenges and mental experiences of being a pioneer in the field of consciousness.

“years that I worked on the eating disorder.”

Understanding Missing Development in Personal Growth

8:17 to 14:03

Katherine elucidates the concept of missing development and its effect on personal relationships.

“What was that like for you mentally to be someone that was doing things before everyone else was?”

Understanding Relationship Patterns

14:03 to 15:40

Explore how unresolved needs and fears impact our relationships.

“We don't know how to collaborate with people.”

Core Wounds and Healing

18:33 to 21:03

Discuss the importance of identifying core wounds and their impact on behavior.

“Like I think a lot of women would say that they make progress in their life, but they do have a reoccurring pattern that continues to come up.”

The Impact of Identity on Relationships

21:03 to 23:34

Examine how our identity shapes our relational dynamics and responses.

“How would one identify that core wound that they have, that they're sort of seeing and orienting the world around them to?”

Identifying and Stretching Core Stories

23:34 to 26:13

Learn methods to identify and stretch beyond limiting beliefs and patterns.

“It's dangerous to let someone get too close.”

Visioning a Positive Future

26:13 to 28:00

Discover techniques for envisioning a fulfilling and expansive future.

“That's not been the identity in love, right?”
Show all 27 chapters

Identifying Source Fracture Stories

28:00 to 32:50

Learn how to identify the underlying stories that shape your limiting patterns.

“So you're stretching by using your imagination.”

Befriending Your Younger Self

35:43 to 42:00

Understand the importance of nurturing your inner child and forming loving relationships with yourself.

“That's ritual.com slash almost 30 for 25 % off your first month.”

Understanding Reality and Identity

42:00 to 43:10

Explore how recognizing your reality can help reshape your identity.

“talking about where you're like, that's not true.”

Healing vs. Transformation

43:10 to 44:50

Learn about the distinctions between healing and transformation processes.

“I've learned so much from along the way.”

The Source of Our Experience

44:50 to 46:10

Discover how our perceptions shape our experiences and relationships.

“And you're like, oh yeah, that's because outside your identity.”

Co-Creating Relationships

49:28 to 51:10

Examine the dynamics of personal relationships and self-responsibility.

“Because I'm like, I know my energy co-created you to be in this and me to be in this.”

Empowerment Through Choice

51:10 to 53:16

Understand the importance of recognizing your choices in overcoming victimhood.

“You know, because that's where the gold is for you.”

Future Self and Transformation Work

53:16 to 56:00

Learn how to balance working on yourself while envisioning your future self.

“like, you know, and basically ask ourselves questions that feed into what's wrong with me?”

Understanding the Future Self

56:00 to 57:39

Explore how to balance personal work with envisioning your future self.

“For the women of our audience that are transformation junkies, you know, they love their, they love doing the work.”

Becoming a Leader of Love

57:40 to 1:00:08

Learn about the journey of self-accountability and embodying love in leadership.

“This was way before the internet, like way before the world we're living in now.”

The Power of Service and Creation

1:00:09 to 1:03:01

Understand how personal pain can be transformed into collective wisdom and service.

“This is, this is, we're in the realm of what's called oncology.”

Developing New Skills and Boundaries

1:03:02 to 1:04:27

Gain insights on learning to set boundaries and negotiate needs effectively.

“and you decide that you're going to create wisdom from it and you're going to make an offering to people, that will change you.”

Navigating Choice Points in Relationships

1:04:28 to 1:09:28

Discover the significance of choice points in strengthening personal relationships.

“They read your book, they come in, they listen to your podcast, they watch YouTube videos, they go to a seminar.”

Creating a Better Future Together

1:09:29 to 1:10:03

Learn about the role of individual contributions in shaping a hopeful future amidst global challenges.

“Like I feel distant from a friend and I need to say something, you know, like, and then I'm having like my choice point.”

Creating a Life of Hope and Purpose

1:10:03 to 1:12:03

Learn about the importance of creating a hopeful future in light of current global challenges.

“And that's where life really begins to take off and change.”

Collective Responsibility and Personal Growth

1:12:03 to 1:13:27

Explore the balance between personal transformation and our shared responsibility for the world.

“And so that's the future that I'm really living into.”

Celebrating the Impact of Katherine Woodward Thomas

1:13:27 to 1:14:14

Reflect on the influential works of Katherine Woodward Thomas and their significance.

“And to begin to get conscious of that, to begin to play with that, to begin to own that, and to relish it.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Welcome to Almost 30 podcast. My name is Krista Williams and I'm so glad you're here. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge that this episode was recorded with Katherine Woodward Thomas, who has since passed away. We're sharing this conversation with deep respect and gratitude for her life, her work, and her perspective that she brought into this space. I hope you received something very meaningful from the words that she shared today on our show. And we wanted to offer this as a tribute and as a honoring of all the work that she's done in the world. She has been the author of incredible books like Calling in the One, Conscious Uncoupling, and Now What's True About You.

0:37I remember sitting across from Catherine Woodward Thomas and feeling this deep sense of reverence and honoring of someone I've looked up to for a very long time. Her work has been paradigm shifting. She's helped couples leave each other with love and grace with conscious uncoupling. She's helped thousands of people call in their soulmate with calling in the one. And she is helping people heal deep, deep wounds with what's true about you. When she sat across from me during her interview in January of 2026, I told her that this book was a magnum opus. I didn't know how true those words would be, but I'm so grateful that she wrote this book that you get to receive and experience today.

1:20Thank you, Catherine. Thank you to her husband. And thank you for every single person on her team for being a support for us and a support for the world. With deep love, gratitude and honoring of this special, special soul. Let's begin. Well, I'm really happy to be here because I don't usually get to talk to younger people. Oh, bless. Thank you. Yeah. What does that feel like for you being a pioneer in the space and now seeing, and we can roll into our conversation and now seeing this work really pick up and really expand and really our generation, my generation taking it on? Well, a lot of times when you're going through things in life, you don't really understand why.

2:02And you get confused about like, why do I have to go through this? And why is this so hard? And you don't understand it until you're able to look back on it. so now I can see that I was forging something because consciousness is relational you know when when you do your work it frees something in me when I have insights and share them and we share these ideas we're liberating each other so I look back to how I was kind of forging the pathway of doing all this work. I really did it because I had a bad eating disorder in my 20s and I just couldn't make any traction. And so I was kind of forced to do my inner work.

2:46I remember feeling kind of benched on the sidelines of life. Other people were having careers, making families, doing creative things. And I was like in AA meetings and Overeaters Anonymous going to therapy. So I felt, you know, kind of strapped in. But I'm so grateful because really, that's who ended up making, well, that's, those are the years that made me who I am today. And, and we all need way showers. So there are people that I get to now say, hey, this way. Yes, you do. I mean, I was telling you before, but your books have been some of the most, I think, paradigm shifting books that I've read, like Conscious Uncoupling was incredibly impactful for me, calling in the one I recommend to so many of my clients.

3:36Like, it's just so powerful. But with the eating disorder piece, it's so interesting because I was reflecting on something recently where I was thinking about some of the most powerful female teachers and leaders. And even my friends that are incredibly embodied, you know, have almost all struggled with eating disorders or their body in some way. And even myself, I had my own journey of disordered eating and very struggling, you know, very much struggling and, and now feeling very good and on the other side of it. But it's almost like a part of the initiation. It's like a fight with the body. It's like, I don't know, I'm trying to make sense of it.

4:16But there really is something about your ability to finally overcome the eating disorder or disordered eating or that aspect of you that's essential to like deeper spiritual discovery to deeper growth and transformation. In my work, I work with women to find body liberation because it's like, I don't think you can have a deep, rich spiritual life if you, or really master and go through a lot of personal growth if that's still in the room. Well, it's because it's masking anxiety, you know, and you're kind of, you're using food to soothe yourself as opposed to learning how to soothe yourself in a really healthy way.

4:57So, yeah, there is a glass ceiling on it because there's what I call missing development. You know, the ability to regulate your own emotions, the ability to observe what you're feeling without collapsing into assuming it's true. The ability to self-mentor and to speak words of wisdom and truth to yourself when you collapse into a lie. Like that's all the development. And in many ways, it's kind of a missing mother. Yeah. A missing good mother. Yep. Janine Roth, you know Janine Roth, obviously. Sure, yeah, yeah. I know Janine. She's coming on in two weeks and her new book is Mother Hunger and it's on the relationship to the mother wound and all of that.

5:43And that's some of my work is teaching that because when we learn to mother ourselves, we learn to do that with our bodies. But what was the moment where you sort of broke free from, was there a moment where you're like, oh, I realize now I'm free from this eating disorder enough so that I could focus on what I'm here to do and how I'm here to serve? Well, actually there was, I mean, it was about 12 years that I worked on the eating disorder. And, and I remember, and part of my journey was reading one of Janine's early books. Which one? Oh, Women, Food and God. I think it was before that. It might've been her first book.

6:16Breaking Free from Emotional Eating. Something. Yeah. I don't Got them all. Yeah. She's a long time ago. Janine and I have been around for now. But I remember when I finally started to get a handle on it, what I did, the first thing I did was like on my knees in gratitude. It really compromises your life tremendously and compromises your own relationship with yourself and how you feel about yourself and, you know, all of the shame-based stuff around it. So to be liberated and to be finally at choice, I actually got on my knees. I said, what can I do for you? And I really listened. I actually created a whole community project with people who were on the streets homeless.

7:04I was a musician at the time. I wasn't a therapist. And I went down to Skid Row and started running creative writing workshops with people who were getting off the streets and then ended up becoming a thing in the music community. so in harmony with the homeless we had a cd out i mean it was really quite lovely but that started from that okay what can i do for you now because thank you you healed me of this and i want to give back now and that was higher power god like asking god what you're gonna do yeah yeah yeah it's interesting because i think i've noticed in my quest for like what can i do for you god sometimes i can feel it as like the ego being like what can i do for you and it's like make it amazing.

7:45And then there's like the true moment that you had of like cellular, like, thank you, I'm liberated now. How can I serve? That's so different and is answered so different. Yeah. As being someone that's a pioneer and has always done things that were before consciousness was, like you've led consciousness in a lot of ways. I'm sure that can feel lonely at times. Did you ever feel like, like you're doing, like not everyone knew about conscious uncoupling or like the path to calling in the one. And even this is pretty paradigm shifting. What was that like for you mentally to be someone that was doing things before everyone else was?

8:22Yeah, thank you. I mean, I couldn't even get a book deal with calling in the one originally, 18 publishers turned it down. And they all said the same thing. She's saying something that no one else is saying. And I remember, though, I said to my agent, I think that's a good thing. I don't think that's bad thing. And then finally, you know, Random House picked it up, which was great. So, you know, but I think there is a very important thing for us to know that when you're here to bring forth something that's new, you don't have a lot of agreement. You don't have a lot of encouragement. As a matter of fact, you have a lot of discouragement, a lot of criticism.

9:02And so you do feel like an outlier. And that's actually a good thing to be a little bit weird and a little bit different, because anything that's come through us into the world of great value has really come through someone who's willing to be a little bit different and stick out their neck and speak from their soul and their truth, what they know to be true. And a lot of these things are what we call tacit knowledge, things you just know. You didn't study it. Nobody told you this. You just kind of intuitively know it. And you want to really, really treasure that. I will tell you also for this whole, the book, What's True About You is very paradigm shifting.

9:47As was Calling in the One. Calling in the One started with the future. You know, what's your intention? You've had all these crappy relationships. You know, you're somebody's booty call and that's as good as it gets for you. Right. And you have this feeling like I'm not good enough. I'm inferior. I have to settle for crumbs, you know, and that's life for a year, two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years. And then all of a sudden calling and the one comes along and says, what's your dream? Let's set an intention in that direction. Just go for the gold. I'm going to be married to an extraordinary person by my next birthday.

10:27Okay. Now, do we say that because you can, you know, run out and make that happen? No, because you would try to make that happen for 20 years. But we say it because it initiates something in us. It initiates growth. It begins to inform who you would need to be in order for that to happen, to not just manifest it, but then sustain it over time. So it initiates something into the universe. So that's also what, you know, what's true about you is let's start from the future. A lot of us have been working out all of our issues, our mother issues, our food issues, our guy issues, you know, our all of these, our money issues, our career issues, our visibility issues, our body issues, all of these things by saying, well, you know, when I was five, this is what happened with my brother.

11:17And when I was six, this is what happened with my sister and then I had that teacher and then I had this incident and all of that stuff matters. It's really great to understand why you are the way you are, to begin to understand the narrative that you formed given the input that was coming to you. But that's the healing work. You're healing your heart. You're getting unfrozen. You're speaking truth. Even though truth may have not been spoken in your home. Truth is really important to be able to say that to yourself, but it's not going to necessarily change your life. And the reason why that is, is because a lot of the dreams we have and the desires we have, we're actually missing skills and capacities that would allow us to show up in life in a way that would generate that.

12:15Break that down a little bit. Yeah. So it's called missing development. So for example, if you grew up and you were like a latchkey kid, you know, you came home, you were alone, your mom was divorced, you, you know, sat in front of the television for hours every day waiting for her to come home. You were all by yourself. And then she came home, she was tired. She stuck a TV dinner in the thing or she opened up a can of something and she was just exhausted and went to bed early and didn't really tend to you. So that's good food for an I'm alone. No one's really here for me. And of course, you know, part of that is that somebody left me, my dad left, or my siblings went with my dad or whatever that story is.

12:56And I can never really get my needs met by anybody. So I'm going to learn how to be really self-sufficient. And our whole personality starts to form around that. Self-sufficiency, not taking the risk to be vulnerable. but why would you because, you know, who's going to care anyway? Or even like the inability to work through any kind of conflict or disappointment, right? So somebody disappoints you, hurts your feelings, doesn't include you. And instead of picking up the phone to work it out, you might just kind of close your heart, back off, shut down. So in other words, our whole personality, how we're relating to ourselves, how we relate to other people, how we're relating to life, what I even expect from life, organizes around the I'm alone.

13:49What we're not developing are the skills of we-ness. What we don't know, we don't know how to share our feelings and needs in a way that allows someone to come into our world. We don't know how to collaborate with people. We don't know how to ask for what our needs are. As a matter of fact, we don't even really know what they are. Or maybe we have unhealthy needs collapsed with healthy needs and we dismiss all of them. We don't know how to work out a breakdown between us because we're so anxious. We think that we're going to somehow lose the relationship, that somehow conflict is the beginning of the end.

14:29So you see there's all this missing development. And a lot of us say that when we repeat patterns, we're just trying to heal. But I don't think that I've ever repeated a core wounding and said, wow, that was a really healing experience.

14:50So what I'm saying is that in order to shift our patterns, we actually need to get on the bandwagon of development. And so there's a time to look back and to grieve the past, to name it, to see what happened clearly. But then we need to shift into becoming who we would need to be actively in order to really become the people that we were born to be. That closes the gap between the lives that we feel we should be living, we could be living, we are supposed to be living, and then this, this showing up again.

15:39One thing I really try to stay consistent with is my morning routine. Even when my schedule gets really busy or I'm traveling, which I'm doing next week, I really like to have something to help me start my day feeling really good, really healthy. And for me, the challenge is doing that even when I'm on the go. But I have been loving, and saying this from the rooftops, cachava. Their new travel packs make it so easy to throw a pack into my bag and still have my favorite all-in-one nutrition shake wherever I am, whether I'm heading to the studio or traveling to LA like I am next week or just running between things, it really helps me keep that ritual of nourishing myself without overthinking it.

16:18Each packet has plant-based protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, greens, probiotics, omegas, and electrolytes, all in one simple shake. And it's delicious. I also love that it supports things like energy, digestion, and overall wellness, and it actually tastes really good. So the travel packs come in flavors like chocolate, vanilla, matcha, chai, coconut, acai, and strawberry. So it's really easy to switch it up. I love the chocolate. I love the strawberry. It just makes staying consistent feel very effortless for me, which I need in this season of my life, even when my routine changes or it's all over the place.

16:54So take your daily ritual with you. Go to cachava.com and use code ALMOST30 for 15 % off your first order. That's kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A.com. Code is almost 30. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it's a reminder that whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone. Life has seasons. We know this. Some feel really grounded, and others can feel overwhelming, especially when you're carrying things quietly in your own head. I think there are always things that keep us up at night. I've got a few of those right now, big decisions, transitions, relationships, work, and it's easy to feel like we're supposed to figure it all out ourselves, but no one has all the answers.

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18:26That's betterhelp.com slash almost 30. Do you think when we talk about this showing up again, is it the subconscious? Is it our unhealed wounds? Like I think a lot of women would say that they make progress in their life, but they do have a reoccurring pattern that continues to come up. And even for myself, and sometimes it'll come up in different flavors. You know, it's like, oh, like recently I'm like, oh, new narcissist type unlocked, you know, like there's different versions. So when we have the old wounds that are coming up that are sort of what feels like it's preventing us from being in the future version, do you, would you say that you have to continue to focus on that healing before you look into the future or what's that relationship?

19:13I see things through the lens of identity. meaning if you were maybe grew up in a household that was a little bit dangerous you know kind of volatile one of the compensations for that that many people might do is to kind of disappear yourself to stay out of harm's way, to stay safe but then invisibility becomes you know obviously its own trap and its own problem so I like to name what I call your source fracture story what's the default interpretive lens at the level of identity because wherever we're centered at the level of identity is where we're showing up from where we're creating our lives from it's how we're interpreting whatever's happening and then responding to life in a way that's actually generating more of the same yeah so if you're an invisible you'll you will be a magnet for narcissist because you're sourcing your safety from having your first attention on someone else, which is, of course, you know, narcissistic supply and they love you and you're very good at it.

20:25And the narcissists are very often, you know, the shiny quarters in the room. So you get a certain kind of boost in your confidence because you're on their arm. But the emptiness that's in the actual connection because there's no curiosity about your own inner experience. How are you feeling? What do you need? But that's generated not from the narcissist, that's generated from your own habit of invisibility because you haven't even developed the habit to say to yourself, sweetheart, what are you feeling? You've been visible to yourself. Yes. How would one identify that core wound that they have, that they're sort of seeing and orienting the world around them to?

21:11Yeah, that's a great question. It's always a younger self. It's always a fixed self. If you notice, you collapse into a particular fixed self, no matter how much you cry over it, understand it, analyze it, try and make it different. that the moment you're disappointed or threatened or even anticipating a possible threat, right? For those of us who have love avoidance, you know, even the possible threat of getting close to somebody might be scary enough. So nothing even happened with the other person, but it might be scary enough to just start to bring out all of the, you know, ways that we destabilize or push-pull or kind of start to criticize a lot, to distance from the person, or all of those things.

22:03But you asked me a question and I lost the thread. No, it's okay. How do we find that core wound? Okay, good. So what you do is... And what was yours? I have different ones for different areas of life. She's a lucky girl. Yeah. Well, I think we all do. For sure. I mean, in areas where we're so competent. Of course. If you were sponsored as a young person, like somebody recognized your talent, your giftedness, and you always won the spelling bee, or you're the smart kid in the class, or, you know, you just have confidence because you were sponsored. It's where we didn't get sponsored. And maybe where we were even cursed.

22:44Like, what is wrong with you today? Yeah, right. Right? Like that kind of thing. Or who do you think you are? Those things get internalized as in I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, I'm not safe, I'm alone. There's actually, I've identified 22 major most common source fracture stories. Wow. And I've mapped out the ways that, I'm going to get to your question because I do remember this right now. But I've mapped out the ways that we're actually generating relational evidence for it now. The reason we can't get rid of it is because it's not what happened 30 years ago. It's what happened 30 minutes ago in how I just showed up.

23:24So if I have an I'm not safe because I had a, you know, kind of volatile parent or older sibling or something, I have an I'm not safe. So the moment that I start to get close with somebody, it brings up my be careful conversation. Someone's going to have ill intent. They're going to hurt me. It's dangerous to let someone get too close. That's just kind of an automatic consciousness, like fish swim in water. That's our consciousness. And from there, I'm going to respond in a way that is defensive, that is prickly, that is maybe critical. Or, you know, people can tell when you're assuming the worst of them.

24:11it's in your vocal tone it's in your body language and it brings out the worst in them and they start being defensive and prickly with you so it feels like it's happening to me, it's actually happening through me and how I'm generating it from that consciousness so there's ways of relating that are keeping the story alive now we're not responsible for what happened to us when we were children that had us form that story but we want to actually be responsible for what's happening now as adults. And the thing that's really important to recognize is that it is a younger part of you. And there is also a part of you that's holding wisdom and recognizes truth and has been doing your work for a while now.

25:07and you recognize that it's not actually true. So we have to get it out of the... We feel these things and then we act like it's true. So we get it into, oh, that's trauma. So it's like unblending in IFS. They call it unblending. That's right. That's trauma. That's not true. So you get into the adult part of you, the resourceful part of you, the spiritual part of you. So how you locate your source fractures toward. First of all, you start with a positive possible future in a particular area that's been really challenged. That's a good one. And that positive possible future needs to not just be a goal.

25:49It needs to actually be outside of your identity to have. Say, give me an example. Yeah. So the example of I'm going to be engaged to an amazing man. And who am I there? Well, I'm loved. I'm protected. I'm cared for, I'm listened to, I'm heard, I'm cherished. You know, that's who I am. That's not been the identity in love, right? So you have to stretch almost internally to try on that self of the future. Totally. And it does feel a little like being stretched on a rack, right? So you have to start with a future that's outside of your identity, but it's a hunger in your heart. and it's something that feels like this is just wrong that I'm struggling in this area.

26:42My friends are not struggling in this area. Why am I struggling in this area? So you... It's almost like the part of you knows that you could do it and you could get over it. So it feels that frustration and that dissonance. It's like, I can do this. I think also too, just on that piece of... I remember one time I went on a hike with a beautiful friend and I'm so... My friends are just therapists and coaches and all these things. So everything is just like next level. And we were talking about our dream life. And she's like, she's like, can I expand it for you? Like, and just expanded my vision and expanded the future identity I had for myself.

27:19It just really helped me find the places where I was limiting myself. And it can be so helpful to do that with a coach or a therapist or a person, because I really, I didn't recognize it, but I was oh yeah, I want that too. And I was like, oh yeah, that's possible. And that's in my truth. And so it can be hard on our own to see our own shortcomings of what we limit for ourselves. So it can be helpful in relationship with the right people to bring that into conversation. That's beautiful. How wonderful that you have friends that are based on the future and the possible. Los Angeles, I tell you.

27:53Right, it is. It's true. LA is so fortunate. We're getting R &T. We're like, what about the future? Okay, so from there now, you know, you're visioning this. You're trying it on. You use your imagination. You know, what does it feel like? What does it look like? You know, what am I experiencing here? As though it's happening now. So you're stretching by using your imagination. And then you go into, to find the source fracture story, you think to yourself, well, what's the pattern I normally struggle with in this area? Because the source fracture story would create the pattern. Yeah. To create the reality.

28:33Yeah, yeah. So the source fracture story is going to show up as a unwanted pattern of limitation and lack. So what is that story? Well, it might be that I under-earn constantly. I'm constantly in debt, even when I try and get ahead. Some bills come in and knock me off. Or it might be that I'm just never passed out. I'm constantly alone, even though everyone thinks I'm wonderful and can't understand it. It might be that I just don't really advance in my career in the way that I had expected and had desired. So there's a lot of things that, you know, these areas of frustration, right? So you're looking for the particular limitation and the heartbreak of it.

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29:19you know, the heartbreak of it. Because when it happens again, it's just so discouraging after how hard we've worked, right? So you close your eyes and you imagine that the pattern is happening right now. And you notice where you feel the feelings in your body. Usually it's in like your solar plexus or it's a heaviness in your heart. But wherever it is, sometimes throat, that's right, you can't speak up or speak out. So you just you just notice where those feelings are and then you kind of notice if there's anywhere else in your body you go to the lowest place in your body and you send love to that part of you you don't try and fix or change anything but you do say to yourself what's the I am if this part of my body could speak what's the I am at the heart of it and you might have like well I'm not good enough I'm not wanted, I'm not loved.

30:18And where you want to go is the one in that moment. It's not rocket science, it's not an exact science, it's an experience that you're having a felt sense in your body. What's the one that hurts the most? What's the one that brings tears to your eyes? And you go there and you name it, right? And then you look for the relational part of it. So I'm alone and everyone always leaves. Or I'm bad and everyone is always mad at me. Or I'm not good enough. Others are better than me. So you're looking, all beliefs have relational components. And in fact, beliefs are not like solo entities just inside of us.

31:02They are relational. They were created in relationship with someone. they're getting reinforced in relationship with people. So you want to name that and that's the projection that you have onto other people. And then you even want to name it for life. Like inside of I'm alone I can never get my needs met or I'm not good enough and no matter how hard I work I can never get ahead or I've worked twice as hard to get half as far as most people. So there's this kind of orientation to life where you have to dim down your expectations, settle for less, all of these things. And then you say to yourself, and this is really the key, how old are you, sweetheart?

31:49How old are you? And that's when you hear, and again, it's not accurate. It's subjective. And you just, you listen to yourself. That's how you begin to name it. And you give that self a voice. The key to being able to transform it is forming a loving relationship with that younger you where you stay identified with your strength, with your sense of purpose, with your intelligence. Sometimes it's hard for people when they do have the habit of getting overly identified with the source fracture story. But I say to people, if a friend came to you and they were just really broken and crushed, who would you be for that friend in that moment?

32:41So it's learning how to befriend ourselves the way we befriend others organically.

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35:51I love that. I was saying that in a program I was teaching Saturday. I was like, imagine giving, receiving the love that you give to others. Because so many people, women especially, are so giving and caring to others. And in my work, I do parts work. And I found that, you know, even in my therapeutic sessions with my therapist or with people, it's so nice to have like an anchor almost so you don't collapse when you're first finding that younger self. And then you can develop that like your own. And then you're like calling forth the inner mother or the inner queen or the inner self. And then you can have that like felt sense experience of that self.

36:28And then you can go to the inner child because sometimes what I found is the part of us that's so wanting change and growth can almost like go to the inner child and is like, release it. You can get that hunger of, we need to change. You need to grow. You need to drop it. You need to stop. Like it's like the part that's so desperate to feel better or not suffer or have change can sort of take over and create a process that's not helpful for the actual core wound? Well, I think one of the ways that the source fracture story stays alive is how we relate to ourselves, right? So we internalized how we were treated, and then we treat ourselves much the same way.

37:15Yeah. Okay. So invisibility is perpetuated because I have no idea what I'm feeling or what I'm needing, but I know everything that you're feeling and needing. So my whole life. I was like, I don't have a body. Like I'd be like, people would be like, how they'd be like, I like your outfit. And I'd be like, what outfit? What outfit? I'd be like, I'd be like, I like sometimes still today I have to be like, I have legs. I have to like form my body on a regular basis. That's amazing. That's amazing. Well, Oh, that's a practice and it's beautiful. Yep. So we want to notice how we're treating, if we leave ourselves alone by getting codependent and all of our energy is out here because we're afraid someone's going to leave us if we don't please them.

38:07So we'll self-abandon. That feeds into the I'm alone story. You know, all of them, you can look at how you relate to yourself. So that's the most important thing. And then what we do in the What's True About You book is we start really mentoring that younger self to what's actually really true. It's almost like, you know, in the moment when trauma was happening, and it could have been an acute trauma, you know, an incident happened, or it could have been developmental trauma. Nobody ever, you know, you were constantly left alone in your home or whatever that was, and you didn't get what you needed to really fully form the skills and capacities that would have allowed you to flourish in life.

38:54but there was no adult there that was helping you to make meaning of whatever was happening in the room so a lot of times when these stories happen and we get captivated, the adult part of us leaves the room too and we're alone with that story again, so we have to learn how to bring the adult part of us into the room as a mentor, I call it the fairy godparent this is kind loving, nourishing, wise, compassionate voice that can say, no, sweetheart, you're not alone. I'm right here. I've got you. Nothing better. I love you. I'm right here with you. You have never been alone. It is not your destiny to be alone.

39:43As a matter of fact, the hunger in your heart, that's telling you that your destiny is to find great love. That is your life that we're going toward, right? So you have to speak words of wisdom and truth and wake yourself up from the story. And then you create what's called power statements so that when you collapse and you will, this is a living practice. And so we don't read the book once and okay, got this next. You know, all of these things are living practices. And how we're dealing with ourselves when that story comes up, when the resignation comes up, when the non-possibility swoops in and, you know, sucks the creativity out of us.

40:26That's the moment we have to sit with ourselves, send love to ourselves. Don't forget to ask the question, how old are you, sweetheart? Where are you in my body? How old are you? Let me tell you what's really true about that. And then you come up with, you know, a power statement that in the moment when it happens, you can get really good. Like you can barely skip a beat. Oh, no, no, no. Just because somebody shamed me doesn't mean I have anything to be ashamed about. I'm going to keep speaking. Right? You just kind of know your own default and you know the way out and you do not skip a beat. That's how we stay generative of the future that we're here to create.

41:07I love that. A few parts of that I really love. I love the fairy godmother because I love for people that don't have access to self of like an understanding of self, having an archetype like that's really nice. You know, archetype of the inner mother, inner queen, the, you know, inner sword or whatever, like the people can kind of understand from an archetypal level. because fairy, inner fairy godmother, you're like, oh, she's loving and wise and even playful and present. And you can bring in those qualities to the experience if you don't have the understanding of what it is to feel like that part of you is there.

41:42And I also really love the element of having the power statement to sort of like, just almost be a protector for yourself of like, no, like, we're not, you know, I've got you, like, I love you, I'm with you. And this is the truth. And I've also found it helpful for my clients and even myself, like what you were talking about where you're like, that's not true. And you kind of are in the process of seeing the real truth of reality outside of the one you've been creating is having on a notebook or in a journal or even on your notes app on your phone, like confirmations of actual reality that you want.

42:19So if it's like, I'm alone, you know, as one of them writing down, you know, my best friend showed up for me today when I was down. Like, you know, I've gone through this thing and I've even been revisiting that in a period that I'm in right now where I had the belief like I would be abandoned, like abandonment was a wound. And I've been having this experience where I've had people really showing up for me and I'm just in this like clocking of it and like really kind of sitting with it. Like this is the reality of what's happening. Like I am not abandoned, you know, just being like, and I think sometimes it takes those extra pauses and seconds to really be like, you know, kind of cellularly remembering and identifying with the new identity that you have.

43:03Beautiful. You do great work. I try. I do, but I'm really grateful. I've had teachers like you, you know, I've learned so much from along the way. But one of the things that I really thought was interesting that I think a lot of our women will find interesting too was in the book, you talk about how healing and transformation are not the same. And I'd love to dig into that because I think a lot of people feel like as soon as you heal, you transform and you're transforming in the healing process. And there is kind of that, but what's your explanation for that? Well, healing, I do like to say healing is the domain of the past.

43:39I mean, you do need to do that work. We don't live in an either or world where one is better than the other. I do think that we are top heavy on looking backwards out of the context of the future that's calling to us. It's a really good one. So I like to, even from the very beginning, when someone's doing their initial work is to listen to the complaint and why they're coming in or, you know, I was in private practice for years and I sometimes still see private clients. But so, you know, what's bringing them in, what's ailing them, what's stopping them. And then to before that session is out, we're going to articulate the future we're going to.

44:19Okay, so, you know, within a relatively short period of time, this is how this area of life is going to go. So now we can get to work and see what's going on here in that context, because that future does initiate, Wayne Dyer called it a future pull, which I love. There's something about speaking that into existence, claiming that as your own, that begins to initiate growth in the direction of that dream. It can be a little scary sometimes when you like call that, you're like, oh, I want this. And you're like, oh yeah, that's because outside your identity. Yeah, so true. Right? There it is right there.

44:59There it is right there. Another way of saying that is outside your comfort. Yeah, so true. Yeah, yeah. So the next part of the journey that's really critical here, and this is what we don't really understand yet. So this is what I'm really proud of because this is new information in the world. Yay! Clip it. Yay! I'm really excited. I love that. And you know, I've had a really interesting career because I have been teaching online since online teaching was possible, like in 2006 or something. You know, where we just all got on teleconference and, you know. I don't know how we did that. I love that your soul group.

45:37I love your soul group all over the world doing that. Like I just, I have a touch of that and a view of that. And I'm like, so epic. Such a different world. Such a different world. But, you know, so I've actually had the privileged position because I've been teaching solid, like sometimes two courses, three courses at once, hardly any breaks because I love what I do. I've had the privilege of teaching about 65 ,000 people in an interactive way. So I've really had the opportunity to develop and see some things that are kind of unusual to see. Most people don't have that privilege. So one of the things that I've really gotten very clear about is this idea of we are the source of our own experience.

46:25One of the reasons it's so hard to get over the source factor stories is because they're so shame-based. And the shame is really like, oh, this is who I am, and I need to hide that from people. Many people do not know that about me, that I'm not good enough or that I'm inferior or that I'm really bad. They knew me, right? So we have these ideas, or damaged goods is another one. So we have these ideas that are shame-based, And we feel that way because we are holding it like it's who we are. Now, we have a lot of evidence for that story. People are treating us badly. We're not getting our fair share.

47:04The world is not recognizing us. We are screwing things up. So all of that evidence plus that feeling is where resignation comes from. What frees us from resignation and opens possibility is when we start to understand how it's happening through us and not just to us. How am I now showing up with someone in a way that is baiting them to give me relational evidence for that particular story? So maybe for the I'm not good enough, I'm just, you know, over-functioning everywhere because I'm just trying to prove my value and in improving my value and over-functioning and overdoing for everybody. Of course, I'm communicating to people that I'm less valuable than them.

48:02That's how that's happening.

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48:48There's even MyPay, which lets you access up to$500 of your pay when you need it. Honestly, my younger self would have benefited from something like this for sure. It just feels like you're not just switching banks, you're upgrading to a smarter way to manage your money. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. Head to chime.com slash almost 30. That's chime.com slash almost 30. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services, a secured Chime Visa credit card, and MyPay line of credit provided by the Bancor Bank NA or Stride Bank NA.

49:23MyPay eligibility requirements apply, and credit limit ranges$20 to$500. Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See chime.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percentage yield with chime plus status only otherwise 1.00 % APY applies no min balance required chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score results may vary see chime.com for details and applicable terms I remember with my ex with an ex that I dated I was in this we're in this dynamic and I was just in it with him of like narcissist empath which was my childhood and everything and I just was like I know you wouldn't be this without me I literally was just like I I wouldn't call that person that to this, I wouldn't say the label of a narcissist today.

50:01Because I'm like, I know my energy co-created you to be in this and me to be in this. Good for you. And it's out in another dynamic with someone else. You might be totally fine and great, an angel. Because I was like, I'm not like this without, you know what I mean? It's so crazy that when you have like the karmic path with souls, you come together and you're just, you create this dynamic together. Like, yeah, it's so fascinating. It's beautiful. But I realized I was the source. And I'm like, I really need to look at this. It's still something I work with today. And I think there's always like a moment for me where I'm like, oh, me again.

50:38You know, you're like, I'm the source again. You kind of, it's fun to be in the victim, but it really doesn't get you to change much. And so I guess what would you say to people that are like, but they hurt me, you know, that are still wanting to be in the victim? I always just validate victimization. You know, people behave badly. Okay, look, so I just say yes, and I'm sorry. And in conscious uncoupling, I say 97 % that person. What's your 3 %? Love it. You know, because that's where the gold is for you. That's where the graduation is. That's where you get to trust yourself to never do this again.

51:17You've got to see I didn't speak up. And you have to do it from a volitional standpoint. One of the things about seeing yourself as source, if I asked most people, well, how are you the source of being treated badly by your boss, for example, or your coworkers? And they might say, well, you know, my father was always very disrespectful to me. They're going to tell me their history. They're going to tell me why that pattern started. but now they're victimized by their own imprinting and their own unconscious. So that's victimization. So what we're looking at is not the explanation from a psychological perspective.

52:02What we're looking at is what are the choices you are making and what are the actions you're taking or not taking that's actually feeding into this, that's allowing this to happen, that's even co-creating this, causing this to happen. I had one woman in a workshop once and she stood up. She was confused about this. She said, well, she said, I really can't speak up because, you know, our father would rage at us when we were young. And now I'm, you know, I date these guys and they're bullies and they run right over me and kind of take over. And I'm pretty unhappy, but I just can't speak up. And I said, well, just try on the word won't.

52:45I said, just try saying it this way. I won't speak up because I am unwilling to risk the possibility that someone would be angry with me if I did. See, now you have a choice. Powerful. Yeah. Now you have a choice. So training ourselves to see our own choices and our own actions from this volitional perspective. One of the things that we also do when we go to see ourselves as source is that we do tend to drop into shame, like, you know, and basically ask ourselves questions that feed into what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? Why do I do this? I'm not a big fan of why questions because they do tend to collapse into that shame-based story.

53:37But I might ask myself, okay, let me just back up and ask myself, you know, more empowering questions. What have I been getting out of this?

53:51Huge. I wonder, what am I assuming is true that I'm defending against or trying to compensate for? What might be more true? How have I been giving my power away to this person? What's motivated me to do that? Do I want to continue doing that? What would it look like to take my power back in this moment? I love that for so many reasons, what you just did with those questions, because it was almost like a pyramid to higher power. Like you created empowerment in that ladder of questions, which is really cool. And then also, even thinking about the woman as that example in the dynamic where she's silenced by men and she's ran over by men.

54:34And it's like, what are you getting from this? And it's like validation of your belief that you need to be quiet, all of those things. It's so interesting when you can have that flip of like, I am getting something out of this. There is a belief I am affirming. There is a way of being that this is protecting. When everything can sort of be flipped back to you, it's so paradigm shifting when you have that. Because I think you switch out of the victim part a little bit in the way. But I loved how you said the word won't. And I think our audience can really use that. And I want to use that too, where if there's a source fracture that they're living from, and they're making it their reality, there is a won't that they're living from too.

55:25Like if I feel like my source fracture is I'm betrayed, I won't be open to the possibility that I could be chosen or loved. Right. And so with each source fracture, there is a won't that you're sort of creating that I love. And I also love the point of not using why as much. I think that's a really great point because I think why can keep us in cycles. wise kind of very pain body feeling of like this it ends up being victimized yeah really yeah the why is victimized which is very interesting yeah this is have you i've been to like byron katie workshops that's like very like very like her vibe too where you're like whoa like what about you chose this and everyone's like oh my god you know you're just like you are the source of your reality.

56:17For the women of our audience that are transformation junkies, you know, they love their, they love doing the work. They spend a lot of time doing the work and they're also very, very tuned into the future self and kind of being in that. They might be even oscillating. Is there a time where you're in the work and then in the future, like how would you say for someone that's sort of doing both the work and then also thinking about their future, like reality, how would you say that they work with both of those types of energies? Well, the future self is the North Star, right? You're striving to become that self.

56:59You're holding yourself accountable to become that self. And you practice it in whatever way you can. I mean, this all started to dawn on me. You know, looking to the future to begin to really change your life rapidly, which can happen when you claim that future.

57:22It wasn't something I learned in graduate school to become a therapist. It wasn't anything that I learned in my many, many years of therapy myself. It was something that kind of started to wake up in me where I started to feel the future that one day I'd be talking to thousands of people. Now that happened about 30 years ago and I was super shy. This was way before the internet, like way before the world we're living in now. And I couldn't imagine how that would happen because I couldn't even have a conversation with people. I was so shy. So I had no idea how to make that happen. And I just decided it wasn't mine to make happen.

58:07I didn't need to run out and try and get fame and fortune. I wasn't even sure I wanted that. But I did get intrigued enough and I took it seriously enough to begin to hold myself accountable to become that version of myself, a woman who had wisdom, who was trustworthy with power, who was open-hearted enough to care about people so that I was leading in the world with love and not my own ambitions. that I was here to really be, awaken something in myself and others, which was really the next stage of our ability to love and be loved. So I started to organize around holding myself accountable to become that person.

58:55So that has to do with, you know, somebody who doesn't call you back. And you're like, well, F you, I'm not calling you back, right? Because we're all kind of petty initially. And then you go, okay, well, really, is that really who I want to be being, right? So holding yourself accountable and continually striving. I'll tell you also I used to, I probably used to kind of collapse my shoulders in because, you know, just that shy body language. For sure. But I used to practice just walking down the street. I'd say, how would a world leader of love order her morning coffee at Starbucks? and I'd, you know, stand up tall, look someone in the eye.

59:33You know, these are the new ways of being, by the way. When you identify the old ways of relating about how you're keeping your story alive, you've got to say what the new ways of relating are, and they will feel weird to you. They will feel uncomfortable. You just got cast in a play, somebody who's completely different than you, really opposite. it. So, you know, but I would practice, you know, speaking up with a loud voice and, you know, all of that stuff, just trying on new ways of being, right? So this isn't really a, just a behavioral intervention. This is, this is, we're in the realm of what's called oncology.

1:00:13Who are you being? You can be, if you're centered in an I'm not good enough, you can say all the right things, you can be dressed the right way, you can be silent at the right times, but there's something in your energy, in who you're being that is transmitted to people. When you course correct your own consciousness, which you can do before you walk in the room and you bring the truth of who you are, your value, your worthiness, your power, you walk into the room organically centered there, you don't even have to say anything again. People are going to respond to you different. So, you know, all of the behavioral shifts that we're talking about comes out of the shift in who you're being.

1:01:08Would you say, like, I think it's such a, I love the example of you at the coffee shop, you know, a world leader of love in the space. And I think that's so powerful because so many women that are listening can practice that at the coffee shop, getting water with a friend, you know, like whatever it is. Would you say that you had the understanding of the true you as your North Star that was like, you were like, I'm a world leader of love. And then you could be like, this is feel into that. Like, do you think that came first before you were practicing that? Like, that's what you were holding yourself accountable to.

1:01:41Yeah. I mean, I think that they worked holistically. I didn't feel it for a long time, even after I started speaking to thousands of people. Do you feel it now? I do feel it now. Yes. I do. Isn't that wonderful? Yes, the best. It took a while to catch up with myself. Really? Do you remember a moment where you felt it? This book has birthed me in a way. You know, when you create books, they birth the author in some way. It's so funny. So our book came out in June and I wrote it with my co-host and everyone would tell us about that. They were like, go the book writing process. And I was like, okay.

1:02:21And then we went through it and I was like, oh, like I was like, you guys are crazy. And then we went through it and she birthed her son. Like I went through divorce. Like we had all these things. I had death happen. She had all the, you know, it was just like, whoa. I don't know what it is. If it's like a consciousness or an energy of clearing, if you're in the frequency of an intention on a daily basis, that's creating reverberations in your field that's shifting things, but it's very powerful, like very powerful what it does. I think any kind of service that we do. Yeah, I agree. When you take your own pain and you decide that you're going to create wisdom from it and you're going to make an offering to people, that will change you.

1:03:14So some people will write books. We get to write books. But some people will do other things where you get larger than yourself. I want to say also about this idea of showing up in new ways, The first thing that comes up for people is, but I don't know how. I don't know how to have boundaries. I don't know how to negotiate for my needs. I don't know how to stop under-presenting myself and to begin presenting myself in a way that's more accurate and reflective of my true value. I don't know how to say no when somebody wants something from me. so you have to I just want to normalize that's the growth trajectory that's what we're calling missing development up front and I'd much rather that we identify the ways that we now are going to take on growing ourselves in the direction of the future we're called to than continually rehashing what happened with my brother when I was six it was a time to look at that time to grieve it and it might come up you know every year on his birthday and uh you you so but some parts of us just need to be witnessed and held with love we don't have to fix everything we don't have to be fully healed of everything before we get to live wonderful lives but we do need to develop and we need to claim those things that we didn't learn when we were young and then become our own good parent and begin to, you know, learn these things.

1:04:56So where do they go? They read your book, they come in, they listen to your podcast, they watch YouTube videos, they go to a seminar. I mean, we're just so privileged. You know, no other generation has ever had the privilege that we've had in terms of growing ourselves in the direction of our dreams. And then the final part of the What's True About You process, because I've been kind of walking us through the seven steps, is this idea of choice points. Because unless you actually make a different decision and you do the thing that's a little unnatural to do, that maybe you're a little insecure about because you haven't really mastered this skill yet, nothing's going to change.

1:05:37So choice points looks like this. So one of the things I realized, I had an I'm alone, a very big I'm alone story. And one of my mechanisms for I'm alone is that when somebody hurt my feelings, I shut down. I just closed my heart and just kind of backed out of the relationship. I've been friends with you guys. Your heart, you make me sad. I've been many friends with I'm alone and it crushes me. Right? And you can do it without the person knowing. You do it with a smile on your face. You just suddenly don't call them as much or you don't invite them out to dinner like you were going to or whatever.

1:06:19you just kind of distance. Well, they, you know, they start to feel that they feel a little bit energetically dismissed. Sometimes they'll leave and it looks like they left us, but really it was us that left first. So anyways, that was one of my mechanisms. And one of the things that I identified was that when my feelings were hurt, I had to really force myself to pick up the phone and have a conversation. Now, I didn't really know how to do that because I wasn't used to doing that. So I had to learn to do things like, I feel really awkward about this, but I want to tell you that my feelings were hurt and you matter to me.

1:07:03And I don't want that to get in the way. Can we talk about it? I had to learn how to do that. What I discovered was that pretty much whenever I said that, the person was willing to listen, apologize, our relationship deepened. This is how we outgrow the story, right? And that's how I began to root down my relationships. If you don't engage conflict, you don't bond the relationships deeply enough. And they can just easily slip away. Conflict is actually what bonds us together. We learn about each other. So that's just a different choice point. So to make a different choice and to be able to, you know, show up in a new way with courage, even though you're awkward and you don't quite know how to do it, that's when life really begins to change.

1:07:58And I think that, you know, all these stories that we live with or these issues that we've been struggling with for years, we can outgrow them. We can graduate from them. It's not your destiny. You are not stuck with them. You do not have to live with chronic anxiety, with chronic insecurity. You do not have to live with codependence. Love avoidance is not a tattoo. Okay. Like all of these things are things that we can actually just outgrow. Mm-hmm. I would say for our community of women, I'd say most of them are at choice point, is what needs to happen more in life. And it's more so the embodiment and taking the action of the thing that they want.

1:08:41You know, I think they understand the patterns and the habits and the things. And a lot of them are in touch and aware of the future self. But it really is the practice of making the choices, overcoming the fear, being with that experience of the discomfort and the vulnerability and so many things. And, you know, relating to your story of your choice point of being honest with a friend, I feel like I've found many times people's choice points are very simple. You know, it's being honest with your partner. It's like telling your boss you can't work late. It's, you know, telling your mom you love her.

1:09:17It's, you know, asking, telling your friend you got your feelings hurt. Like they're actually very small relational oftentimes. And that really builds like our fortitude and our ability. And yeah, I think even in my life, you know, I'll do really incredible things and then I'll be on my way home. Like I feel distant from a friend and I need to say something, you know, like, and then I'm having like my choice point. I'm like, am I going to tell that friend of that thing? And it's really, that's the work because that feels harder for me than sometimes doing the other things. I love that you're saying that because it really is in those small decisions and they're not small for us.

1:09:52I know. They're not. It's a big deal. If we, you know, have the courage to speak up after not speaking up for years, that is something to celebrate. And that's where life really begins to take off and change. Beautiful. So what was like something that came through in this process of writing What's True About You that you were like, what was one of the sections or parts or stories that you were really just taken by? Well, I do want to say that the overall motivation for why the book feels critical to me right now is because of what we're collectively going through in our world and the escalation of danger and conflict and hatred, division, all of these things that we're dealing with.

1:10:37And in the midst of things like climate change, a lot of us are losing hope for the future of our world. so we're here talking about you know our own personal lives because the book is about becoming getting out of reaction and into creation so that we are the creators of our lives but the big picture is that all of us have a role to play in co-creating the future of our world together and we need to master our ability to create an unpredictable unprecedented future that looks unlikely because we're a stand for that future. And we need to start to generate a future that is life affirming, that is a safe place for children, that is a world that we feel good about leaving to future generations.

1:11:31The future I'm really living into is a future that I will never get to see in my lifetime. And that is that all, all little girls and boys wake up inherently with a deep knowing of their inherent value and their inherent worth and their inherent power, their inherent creativity. And that, and that's what's possible. I mean, I think all of us are working, working, working, working to get us there collectively because consciousness is evolving. And so that's the future that I'm really living into. Stunning. I love that. It's helpful. It's helpful for me. And I think it's helpful for audience too, because it's beautiful.

1:12:13We're like, because there's a self-focusedness sometimes. Oh yeah. Sometimes in this world, where you're in your own, you know, transformational work or the past work, and then you're in the future work and you're still in your reality and actually love even the note of bringing in the future vision for humanity, for earth into the future visioning process and sort of what that would look like and what we're stewarding because yeah, even with our future versions, we're not going to be in a place in space that they could be most expressed if we're not all in it together. Yeah. I love that. Beautiful.

1:12:52Yeah. So I do feel that I had a book launch party the other night. It was so wonderful. But what woke up in the room was it was almost like we collectively just breathed that in and took that on together. Because this isn't a one person project, you know, this has to be a we, we are in this together. So that's the context. And it doesn't take away from creating miracles for yourself manifesting, you know, the fulfillment of your heart's desire, but there is a larger purpose to this particular teaching, which is to really step up and recognize that we are creating our lives and our world in each and every moment.

1:13:35And to begin to get conscious of that, to begin to play with that, to begin to own that, and to relish it. Beautiful. I'm so grateful you came. It's such an honor. I remember reading all of the books and just really finding them to just be so next level and so powerful. And even this book, I'm really excited for everyone to get because it feels very next level and it feels just like, I was telling you before, your magnum opus. And I'm excited for our audience because it feels like this is the perfect time for them. So thank you so much for coming. Thank you for being on the podcast. Is there anything else you want to leave with our audience?

1:14:16Oh, just I want to thank you so much for the work you're doing. Such great work. I know that you're leading a lot of people and people trust you because you're so real. And I'm just honored to sit with you today. Thank you. Two real ones. Yeah. Okay, guys, we'll see you later. I love you. Bye.

1:14:37Again, what a great honor to sit with Catherine Woodward Thomas in the last months of her life. I am so grateful for her work. It has been so incredibly transformative for me and so many others, and I feel so lucky to be on Earth at the same time that she was. With deep love, gratitude, and reverence, the Almost 30 community, Lindsay and myself are so honored to have shared this conversation with you today.

From the publisher

We are heartbroken to share that since recording this interview, Katherine Woodward Thomas has passed. In January, Krista had the gift of sitting down with Katherine for this conversation, and we feel deeply blessed to share her wisdom, presence, and legacy with this community.

The beloved bestselling author of Calling in 'The One' + a pioneer in conscious relationships, Katherine shares the deeply personal journey that led her to her life’s work—from overcoming an eating disorder to becoming a global thought leader in personal growth + transformation. 

She introduces her powerful concept of the “source fracture story,” revealing how our earliest wounds shape our relationships, beliefs, and reality. But this conversation is not just about healing the past—it’s about consciously creating what comes next. 

We also talk about:

Why healing alone isn’t always enough—and what real transformation actually requires

How to stop repeating unhealthy relationship patterns, including narcissist/empath dynamics

The difference between victim consciousness + personal power

Why your future self should guide your growth—not your past

The truth about “missing development” + emotional maturity

How to identify + rewrite your core belief systems

The role of self-mothering + inner healing in personal transformation

How identity shifts can change the way you experience love, purpose, and connection

Resources:

Website: https://katherinewoodwardthomas.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherinewoodwardthomas/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinewoodwardthomas/

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Almost 30 is edited by Garett Symes and Isabella Vaccaro.

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