“One of my favorite parts of this group is you and the way that you lead and the way that you inspire … everytime I talk to you, I feel better. You always make me feel like I can conquer what I need to conquer and it’s like no big deal.”  – Heather Dressel

On this episode of the Plan Simple Meals Podcast, I’m really excited to talk with Heather Dressel about her family, her business and her experience during FLOW365.

Heather has an 8-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son. She’s been a stay at home more for ten years, and this is the first year she said she can do something for herself. And she’s doing something really exciting—starting her own business, called Divinely Sensitive. In addition she moved to a new state recently.

In the midst of all this change, she was resistant to committing to a full year process, here’s what happened when we met in person:

I just had this knowing … this feeling that we were going to work together … When we started talking and you told me about this program [FLOW365], there was like a ping in my heart that was like, “Ooh, you need to get her information and stay in touch with her. This sounds something that it could be really great for you.

Heather’s FLOW Situation

Heather needed to focus on healing from serious chronic illnesses and disease and learning about foods that make her and her family sick. She is transforming from full time mom to a business owner. Over the past couple of years, she’s had really amazing spiritual awakening and she’s settling to this new home. That’s food, lifestyle, om and work right there.

She says, “I had so much going on, I needed support, I needed a system, a gentle, ever changing, forgiving structure that would inspire me to show up to be my best self in all of those areas.”

Why Planning Matters

I always loved the idea of planning. Planning looked like tons of notebooks and lists floating around my kitchen and everything scattered. As much as I love order and planning, I just never really found a way to make it work for me and I still struggle with consistency, but I’m definitely getting better since I started FLOW.

Just Show Up

You show up when you show up. “It goes totally in alignment with what I’m trying to do with my entire life to let go of the perfectionist and just show up and do the best I can in that moment.”

Key Tool: Braindump

I always say there is magic in writing things down. It helps us really be focused on our goals but it also lets us let go of trying to hold all the information in our heads. Heather says, “Just the braindump alone is super helpful for me. If I fully get to that, it’s like I’ve let everything out, I’ve looked at it, I’ve read it, and it kind of sits with me.”

A braindump, or as I like to call it a Master List, can be super helpful, but for Heather, they used to be overwhelming. Here’s what changed:

A huge shift for me was doing this dump list and then breaking it down in the back of the journal to the food, work, om and lifestyle. I’m a really visual person and so seeing everything in the way it’s organized in the journal is a lot less overwhelming for me than looking at pages and pages and pages of list.

And what’s on our list can change season to season. Right now I might be really focused on work, but in a couple of months I might feel pulled to really reconnect with my food. But when you see it written down, and you don’t put it on your calendar it isn’t going to get done.

Key Tool: Week