Meet my qi gong teacher, Peter Caughey from Forest Rock Qigong.

Peter is the founder of Forest Rock Qigong, a master teacher in Qigong and Taiji, and a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine with more than 30 years of teaching and clinical experience. (Forest Rock Qigong)

Together, we speak about the impact qi gong has on us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, as a practice that brings us back into the body, back into presence, and back into a more honest relationship with ourselves.

We talk about how qi gong supports the mind to slow down, the body to soften, the emotions to move, and the spirit to feel more connected. It is not about forcing yourself into calm. It is about learning how to listen. Learning how to meet what is here. Learning how to move with life instead of constantly pushing against it.

Peter also shares the deeper wisdom of yin and yang, and how life is not about choosing one side over the other. It is the dance between doing and being, strength and softness, effort and surrender, movement and stillness. This conversation is a reminder that we are not meant to live in one mode all the time. We are meant to learn how to respond to the season we are in.

We also speak about the Taoist way of wu wei, which is often understood as effortless action. Not doing nothing. Not being passive. But moving in a way that is aligned, natural and in rhythm with life. Knowing when to act, when to pause, when to soften, and when to let life meet you.

This episode is for anyone who feels like they have been living from force, pressure, urgency or overthinking, and is ready to return to a steadier way. A way that feels less like pushing, and more like listening. Less like control, and more like trust. Less like being separate from life, and more like being in relationship with it.

You can learn more about Peter and Forest Rock Qigong here: https://forestrockqigong.com/

You can also explore Peter’s 21 Day Online Qigong Challenge here: https://forestrockqigong.com/21-day-qigong-challenge/ (Forest Rock Qigong)

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In this episode, I speak to the moment where the old fuel stops working.

The part of life where you realise you are not lazy, you have not lost your fire, and you are not broken. Maybe the thing that used to drive you simply does not work anymore. The proving, the pressure, the pleasing, the performing, the fear of falling behind, the need to be good, successful, impressive, chosen or enough.

That fuel may have taken you far. It may have made you disciplined. It may have helped you survive seasons you never should have had to survive. It may have built parts of your life that look strong from the outside. But it may have also made you tired.

This episode is for the person who is in that strange space where nothing is working the way it used to. The old drive has gone quiet. The old goals do not hit the same. The old version of motivation is not there to pull from anymore. And while that can feel terrifying, it may not mean you are falling apart. It may mean something in you is finally done.

This is not the end of your fire. It is the beginning of a different one. 

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In this episode, I speak into the grief that can come with becoming more honest, more awake and more yourself.

The heaviness you feel is not a sign that you are going the wrong way. Sometimes it is the ache of leaving behind a version of you that once had to exist. The version who stayed quiet. The version who kept the peace. The version who made herself smaller so other people could stay comfortable. The version who said yes because no felt dangerous.

And while you may not want to go back, it can still hurt to move forward. You can miss who you were, even when you know you cannot live from that place anymore. You can be proud of your growth and still feel sad about what it has asked you to release. You can outgrow a pattern, a role, a relationship, a way of being, and still feel tender about leaving it behind.

This episode is about giving yourself permission to grieve the old self without making that grief mean you have made the wrong choice. Because grief does not always mean go back. Grief means something mattered. Grief means a version of you did her job. Grief means you are standing at the edge of who you have been and finally telling the truth about who you are becoming.

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In this episode, Steve and I speak about what it means to love each other more deeply 10 years in.

The love after, “I have seen so many versions of you and I still choose you” kind of way.

We talk about how our love has grown, changed and deepened over the years, and why we believe that has come down to communication, the willingness to keep growing together and continuing to have fun. 

Because 10 years in, you are not the same people you were at the beginning. Life changes you. Work changes you. Family changes you. Grief, stress, seasons, bodies, dreams, disappointments and growth all change you. And a relationship has to be able to hold those changes.

We speak about the importance of continuing to meet each other where we are, not where we used to be. To keep having the conversations. To keep telling the truth. To keep listening, even when it is uncomfortable. To keep being curious about each other, instead of assuming we already know everything there is to know.

And of course, we talk about fun. Laughing matters. Being ridiculous together matters. Taking the pressure off matters. Sometimes the thing that keeps love alive is not another deep conversation, but the ability to look at each other and laugh at the absolute nonsense of life.

This episode is a reflection on long-term love, the beauty of growing together, and the small choices that help a relationship stay alive, honest and connected over time.

And 10 years on, we love each other more than we did at the start, because we have kept choosing to know each other, grow with each other, speak to each other and still have a bloody good time together.

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In this episode, I’m speaking into the difference between what the head wants and what the heart knows. The head can want a lot of things. It can want the impressive thing, the safe thing, the thing that looks good from the outside. The thing that keeps us approved of, chosen, respected, admired or protected.

It can want the next achievement, the next goal, the next version of success, the next thing we think will finally make us feel enough. But sometimes, the question we need to ask is, do I actually want this? Or do I want what I think this will give me?

The heart often has a quieter clarity. The heart is the part of us that can feel when something is aligned, and when something is only being chased because we are scared to stop.

It can feel the difference between a true desire and a conditioned one. Between a genuine pull, what is ours, and what we have been taught to want.

And this is why it is healthy to question what we are going for. Do I want this because it feels true? Or because I am trying to prove something? Do I want this because my heart is in it? Or because I have been subconsciously influenced by what I have seen, absorbed, compared myself to, or been praised for?

So much of what we chase is shaped quietly. By family systems, culture, social media, old wounds, the desire to belong, the fear of being left behind. By the version of success we were handed before we ever got to ask whether it suited us.

This episode is an invitation to come back into that kind of listening. To question the chase. To sit with the truth beneath the wanting. 

Sometimes the clarity we are seeking does not come from thinking harder. It comes from getting quiet enough to hear what has been true all along.

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What are you pretending not to know? It is a confronting question because, most of the time, we do know.

We know when something no longer feels right. We know when we are outgrowing a relationship, a role, a version of ourselves or the way we have been living. We know when we need to speak, leave, begin, rest, change direction or finally tell ourselves the truth.

But knowing asks something of us.

It asks us to act. It asks us to risk disappointing people. It asks us to let go of what is familiar. It asks us to stop hiding behind confusion when the truth has been there all along.

Sometimes we pretend not to know because we are not ready for the consequences of knowing. So we overthink. We ask more people. We wait for another sign. We keep gathering information, hoping the answer will change.

This episode is an invitation to get honest with yourself.

Not to judge where you have been avoiding the truth, but to notice it. To listen to what your body, your intuition and your life have already been trying to tell you.

Once we stop pretending not to know, the next step usually becomes painfully clear.

Next Best Step Workshop - book here!

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In this episode, I spoke about a daily prayer that has become an anchor for me.

“Guide me to where I’m destined to be. To the people I’m meant to meet. To the ground that calls my name. To the chances that are mine to take. To the life that’s mine to live.”

It is simple, but it is not passive.

This prayer is not about sitting back and waiting for life to happen. It is about learning to trust the timing of what is meant for us, while staying awake enough to move when the moment arrives.

It asks us to have faith. Faith that lets us keep walking even when we cannot see the whole path yet.

It asks us to listen. To the body, to the pull, to the quiet knowing. To the truth that often speaks softly before it becomes loud enough to ignore.

It asks us to stop forcing what is not ours, and to stop dismissing what keeps calling us back.

Sometimes we are so busy trying to figure it all out, prove ourselves, choose correctly, be impressive, be safe, be certain, that we miss the small invitations life is placing right in front of us.

The right people. The right rooms. The right places. The right chances. The moments that do not always make logical sense, but something in us recognises them.

This episode is about devotion to that listening.

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If you want to laugh, this one is pure light. Steve and I talk about what we used to do at the start of our relationship to prevent the other from hearing our farts. I know, I know, it's crass, but every relationship goes through this phase and we thought we'd have a giggle and talk about the things we did. Very relatable.

Website: www.katjohn.com.au
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In this episode, I talk about something I've been reflecting on lately: the difference between a pure intention and all the fear we layer on top of it.

I've noticed that the deepest truths in my life rarely arrive with fanfare. They don't shout. They don't come with a ten-step plan or every answer neatly wrapped up. They usually arrive quietly, as a simple knowing. It might be the feeling that it's time to leave a job, start a business, have a difficult conversation, tell someone you love them, or admit that you don't anymore. The intention itself is often clear, uncomplicated, and deeply true.

What makes it complicated is our mind.

Almost immediately, it begins projecting into the future. What if this doesn't work? What if I fail? What if I hurt someone? What if I make the wrong decision? What if I lose everything? Before we know it, the simplicity of the original intention has been buried beneath layers of fear, doubt, and imagined outcomes.

I don't believe our mind is trying to sabotage us. I think it's doing what it's designed to do: keep us safe. But there comes a point where protecting ourselves from every possible risk also protects us from living the life that's trying to emerge.

This episode is an invitation to notice the difference between the quiet wisdom of your heart and the loud stories of your mind. What if you didn't need to know exactly how everything was going to unfold before taking the next step? What if your only job was to honour the intention, trust yourself enough to take the next best step, and allow life to meet you there?

I've found that the heart rarely overcomplicates things. It simply knows. It's our fear that tries to convince us otherwise.

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