Forged In The Dark

You can be eating clean and still not absorbing what's on your plate. Because it was never only about the food.

The other day I stopped for lunch, sat back down at my computer, and the second my eyes hit that project I felt the pressure flutter. So I closed the laptop and ate in a quiet house. And I couldn't stop thinking about you. The one scarfing lunch at your desk. The driver I watched shoving a burger down while yelling at the car in front of her.

Here's what almost nobody connects. You can't digest food in the stress response. How you eat, who you're being when you eat, matters as much as what's on the fork. And there's a breath for that, one I've used for over a decade, that can move you from stress to calm in as little as three to five rounds.

So which one are you? The one at the desk, the one in traffic, or the one who finally sat down to taste it?

Remember, we go forward and up.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You can't properly digest food in the stress response. How you eat matters as much as what you eat.
• Who you're being at the plate is fuel or friction. Gratitude for the meal helps you take on the nutrients. Shame works against you.
• Digestion starts before the first bite. Looking at, smelling, and chewing your food signals your whole system that fuel is coming.
• One breath practice does double duty. It primes you for a meal and anchors you in any stressful moment, once it's a daily habit.
• Fuel and hydrate well and you move through life with more buoyancy, meeting hard moments with more ease and grace.

ACTION STEPS

1. Take three to five slow breaths before every meal. In through the nose, out through pursed lips like a bubble wand, all the way to the bottom.
2. Close the laptop and pull out of traffic. Give the meal a quiet space with work and home turned off.
3. Chew each bite 30 to 40 times. Set the fork down between bites, sip water, stretch the meal toward 20 minutes.
4. Watch your thoughts at the plate. Trade the shame story for gratitude for the fuel in front of you.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"It is not just what you eat. It is who you are being when you eat."

CONNECT

Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.

Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com

Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com

newsoulrising.com

Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

Burnout doesn't only come from the grind. Sometimes it comes when everything is going right.

I had a similar conversation with two different people last week. One rides the momentum until it runs out. One walks the tightrope every single day, feeling like she's always on the verge of tipping over. Two driven people, both circling the same wall.

Here's what almost nobody's doing. Building recovery into the day before the crash ever comes. Not the emergency vacation you scramble to book. The small daily tools that keep you off the floor in the first place, and pull you back faster when life knocks you down anyway.

So which one are you? The one who rides it to the edge, the one on the tightrope, or the one who's ready to build a life you don't need to escape from.

Remember, we go forward and up.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The crash from the good is real. When everything is soaring and you hit the wall anyway, it's showing you your capacity to hold the good, not your failure.
• Recovery isn't what you do after you crash. You build it into every single day, before you ever hit the wall.
• The tools that prevent burnout are the same ones that help you recover from it: gratitude, breath work, prayer, meditation, intention.
• If your cup is full, there's no room for what wants to come in. Sometimes you have to pour something out to make space.
• Scrubbing your calendar for an emergency vacation isn't recovery. The goal is a life you don't need to escape.

ACTION STEPS

1. Prime the day before your feet hit the floor. Set your intention, breathe, practice gratitude before you get out of bed.
2. Build in pit stops. Real meals, quiet time, a mindfulness beat spaced through the day, not saved for the crash.
3. Have a crash plan ready before you need it, so recovery is a protocol and not a scramble.
4. Learn the subtle shifts. Catch the early physical signals and stop for the break before the break stops you.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"It is my intention to inspire you to create a life that you don't need to escape."

CONNECT

Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.

Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com

Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com

newsoulrising.com

Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

What does it actually take to become someone you've never been before?

A million small choices, most of them made when no one is watching.

This episode was meant to be about the fall equinox. Then a conversation changed the plan. A woman sat across from me, sad and overwhelmed, and asked me that exact question. The hard truth is she already knew the answer. She just wasn't willing to do it. So this one is about the gap between knowing what to do and choosing to do it, and what the trees teach us about letting go. Every fall, trees pull their nutrients back, seal off what's done its job, and release it. The color you see isn't a show. It's strategy.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There is no single method that changes your life. It is a combination of tools that work for you, found through trial and error and dedication.
• Someone can hand you the exact formula, the playbook, the manual, and you would still have to be the one to use it.
• Knowing what to do and being willing to do it are vast distances apart. Most people know. Few are willing.
• The tree survives by letting go. The color you see is the tree pulling nutrients back and sealing off what it no longer needs.
• Becoming someone new is supposed to be uncomfortable. It is possible, and necessary, to be uncomfortable and take action anyway.

ACTION STEPS

1. Name one leaf you're ready to drop, a thought, habit, or story that has done its job.
2. Get honest about the gap between what you know you need to do and what you have been willing to do.
3. Make the choice the night before. When the alarm goes off, you are not deciding anymore, you are keeping a promise to yourself.
4. Expect the discomfort and take action anyway. Treat it as the process working, not a sign to stop.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"I could hand it to you as a workbook, as a playbook, as a manual for your life. But you would still have to use it."

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
newsoulrising.com
Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

You already know your sticky spots. The project you keep pushing to tomorrow. The place you keep telling yourself you'll deal with next week. Not stuck, exactly, just stalled.

I sat with two of mine this week. A creative project I'd been circling and avoiding, and a run where I kept measuring myself against people who've been running their whole lives instead of the eight and a half months I've got.

Both broke open the same way, and it wasn't more grind. I pulled the project apart, started ripping out every piece that wasn't working, and somewhere in the tearing down I slipped into flow, on my feet, circling my kitchen island, jazzed for the first time in weeks. The run cracked open the second I let myself be exactly where I am instead of where everyone else already got.

That's the whole thing. Change the plan, never the goal. This isn't quitting. It's giving yourself permission to remove what's flat and out of alignment until what's left is a lump of clay you actually get to mold.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Sticky spots are not the same as being stuck. They are the areas you already know are flat, that you keep pushing to tomorrow.
• When something is not working, break it down and remove the pieces that are out of alignment, not the whole thing.
• Change the plan, never the goal. Adjusting your approach is not quitting, it is finding alignment.
• Give yourself permission to be exactly where you are, not where everyone else already got. You only have to be where you are.
• Celebrate what is already working before you go looking for the sticky spots. Be your own biggest cheerleader first.

ACTION STEPS

1. Name what's on fire first, the areas that are working, and let yourself be proud of them.
2. Step sideways and find one sticky spot you keep avoiding.
3. Pull it apart. Remove the pieces that feel flat or out of alignment instead of scrapping the whole thing.
4. Give yourself permission to change the plan, keep the goal, and mold what's left.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"I'm not giving you permission to change your mind. I am giving you permission to give yourself permission to change your mind."

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
newsoulrising.com
Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

You are the key. But a key only works when you turn it.

I showed up to my run group ready to run and found out we were walking, slow, because someone was injured. I was frustrated the whole two miles. Then I went home, started my own timer, ran three miles on hills, and felt zero knee pain. The morning I was annoyed about handed me the exact information I'd been missing.

That's the whole thing. Getting what you want takes reps, but if the reps aren't working, doing more of them just spins your wheels. The move isn't to force it harder. It's to get curious, look at what's actually happening, and change the plan without changing the goal.

If you've been standing at a door that won't open, this episode is a reminder worth sitting with: the lock might not be broken, and the key has been in your hand the whole time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You are the key, but a key only works when you turn it. The reps are how you turn it.
• It is not just about doing more reps. It is about the quality of the reps and whether they are actually getting you where you want to go.
• When results flatline, it is your responsibility to break the reps down and see what is not working.
• Change the plan, not the goal. A setback is often information, not failure.
• A season where the reps do not seem to be working may just need more time, a small tweak, or may be preparing you for what comes next.

ACTION STEPS

1. Audit your reps. Look honestly at whether your daily effort is producing results you actually want.
2. When something is not working, get curious instead of forcing it harder.
3. Change the plan, keep the goal. Try one different approach toward the same outcome.
4. Treat setbacks as information. Ask what this frustrating moment is actually showing you.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"We change the plan, we don't change the goal."

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
newsoulrising.com
Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

There is a song I hated for almost thirty years.

One mortifying high school moment had fused itself to it. For decades, the first note dropped me straight back into it, cringing, every single time. Then three weeks ago, life cued that exact song up again, in front of a full room, with no warning, and handed me a choice most people never realize they have: stay in the old memory, or build a new one right on top of it.

You have that same choice, and it's more powerful than anything your thinking mind can talk you into. This is about the moment you stop reliving the version that hurt and start rewriting it on purpose.

What would you take back if you knew you could?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A painful or embarrassing memory does not have to live in you the way it happened. You can give it new meaning.
• The reframe is not a thinking exercise. It is putting your body into a similar situation and creating a different outcome.
• You get to choose which memory the trigger pulls up. Same song, same date, a new experience layered on top.
• This works for the small and the heavy alike, from a mortifying memory to a friend who now celebrates his dog's birthday on the day his best friend passed.
• You are far more powerful than you know. You can stay in the old memory or choose to create a new one around it.

ACTION STEPS

1. Name the memory. Identify the moment, song, or date that still pulls you somewhere you would rather not go.
2. Create a new experience on purpose. Put yourself back into a similar situation and choose a different outcome.
3. Let the trigger become the doorway. The next time it surfaces, choose the new memory over the old one.
4. Look for the heavier ones too. Ask what painful anniversary or association you could give a new meaning.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"You can stay in that old memory, or you can choose to create a new experience around it."

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
newsoulrising.com
Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

You can water a plant every day and still watch it die.

I found that out on a Sunday, hands in the dirt. My social plans had fallen through, and instead of chasing another one that would have looked like fun and left me in the deficit, I made soup, baked banana bread, took a long walk, and finally repotted the plants I'd been putting off.

One of them, a kangaroo paw, I'd had for two months and never potted. Every time I watered it, the water ran straight through and it still couldn't stay hydrated. And when I freed the root ball, I understood why. The roots had grown in circles so tight around everything that I'm lucky it was still alive.

That's when I stopped thinking about the plant and started thinking about you. Because where in your life are you circling and circling, but the whole area is malnourished? Where have your roots grown so bound they can't even absorb water, let alone grow? This one is your soil test, and the only question that matters at the end of it: are you the one that's root bound, and what are you willing to do to get new soil?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When the water runs straight through and nothing stays, the problem is the pot and the soil, not how much you are pouring in.
• Roots can grow in circles so tight they can't absorb water, let alone grow. You can look fine on the outside and be root bound underneath.
• Replenishing does not always mean a bigger pot. Fresh soil and a freed root ball are their own kind of growth.
• Hands in the dirt, feet in the grass, a walk in nature, these are legitimate and grounding on a soul level.
• Choosing what feeds you over what only fills the time is self-care. Fun that drains you still sends you into the deficit.

ACTION STEPS

1. Take an honest inventory and test your own soil.
2. Notice where in your life you are circling the same space, malnourished and root bound.
3. Repot yourself, free the roots that are stuck, and give yourself fresh soil.
4. Choose one thing that feeds your body, one your mind, and one your soul.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"Where in your life have roots become bound so tight that they can't even absorb water, let alone grow?"

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Explore at forgedinthedarkpodcast.com
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
newsoulrising.com
Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

You think nobody around you understands what you're going through. Yours is different. Harder, or just not the same as theirs. So you carry it alone.

What if the only thing keeping you alone is that story?

I was buying air filters at Lowe's when a stranger named Marty and I figured out we had walked in through completely different doors and ended up in the exact same place. Two lives that looked nothing alike on paper, standing in the same aisle, rebuilding from the same ground.

Because here's what almost nobody says out loud: the details of your hard thing matter far less than what you do next. And whatever you're rebuilding from, there is someone close by rebuilding right alongside you, kept apart from you by nothing but the belief that you're not in the same boat. This episode is about the door you came through, the destination you share with more people than you know, and why "but mine is different" might be the loneliest sentence you tell yourself.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Different entry points, same destination. The specifics of what you are rebuilding from differ, but the rebuild itself is remarkably the same.
• What you do next matters more than how you got here. The work of starting over does not care about the details of the loss.
• "Mine is harder, ours is different" is a story, and it is the exact thing keeping you isolated from people who understand.
• Rebuilding is hundreds of choices you once made with someone and now make alone. Some feel freeing and still carry sadness.
• You are far less alone than you think. Someone near you is walking through something almost identical, separated from you only by a story.

ACTION STEPS

1. Name your door. Get honest about the change you are rebuilding from, whatever form it took.
2. Question the "we're different" story. Notice where you have decided no one else could possibly understand.
3. Let someone in. Stay open to the person whose circumstances look nothing like yours but whose destination is the same.
4. Honor the small choices. Treat the ordinary solo decisions as real steps in the rebuild, not just errands.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"The reason they're gone matters a lot less than how you handle it."

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Listen at www.forgedinthedarkpodcast.com
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
Music: @visacard_ on Instagram

Remember, we go forward and up.

A rainbow that ended over my house. A varsity football game washed out by lightning. A Starbucks we only ducked into because nature called. And a birthday I was never supposed to be part of.

I almost missed all of it. If my friend and I had left that parking lot twenty minutes earlier, we would have come and gone and never crossed paths with her.

But we didn't. We ended up inside on a pouring rainy night, and a couple walked in with a beautiful chocolate cake. I watched the husband push it toward his wife, watched her almost cry, watched her push it away. And I said the thing most people would never say to a stranger. What happened in the next ten minutes changed the entire trajectory of her day, and honestly, it changed mine too. There is a reason this whole story started with lightning and a rainbow.

This one is about paying attention to your environment, and the power you have to change a stranger's day, week, or life in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You never know who needs you. Ten minutes of attention can change the entire trajectory of someone's day.
• Pay attention to your environment. When the signs show up, lightning, a rainbow, a feeling, stay awake to where the day is trying to take you.
• Timing is not always an accident. Being in the right place at the right time often means you were exactly where you were supposed to be.
• The pain you have lived through becomes the reason you recognize it in someone else. Your history is what let you read her face across the room.
• Celebrating yourself matters most. When the people you love forget, the most important thing is that you do not forget you.

ACTION STEPS

1. Look up from your own day. Notice the person nearby who is quietly struggling, the way you would want to be noticed.
2. Say the kind thing out loud. The comment most people swallow is often the one that changes everything.
3. Read the signs and follow them. When your environment is speaking, let it move you instead of talking yourself out of it.
4. Celebrate yourself, especially when others forget. Do not outsource your worth to whether someone remembered.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"You never know how you are going to either negatively or positively affect someone."

CONNECT
Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
Music: @visacard_

Remember, we go forward and up.

I dropped a full cup of water down the front of my dress in the middle of a packed event. Lights low, three speakers on stage, a full room locked in, and there I go, soaked to the skin.

What I didn't clock until the water was already in the air is that everyone near me was in the splash zone.

Same few drops hit a handful of women. Most laughed. Some called it refreshing in a hot room. And one looked at me like a fire breathing dragon, ready to take me out over water she could have wiped off with a napkin. Same splash. Same room. Same second. Completely different woman looking back at me.

That is the whole thing, and it has almost nothing to do with water.

There is an old story about a full cup of kombucha and what comes out when somebody bumps you. Everyone wants to blame the bump. But the bump was never the reason. Whatever is already in the cup is what spills, anger and resentment or grace and peace, and life is going to bump every one of us. So this episode leaves you sitting with the only question that actually matters when it happens: when you get bumped, what pours out of you?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We all get bumped. The bump is not the problem. What spills out of you when it happens is the real information.
• Whatever is in your cup is what comes out. Anger, insecurity, and anxiety spill just as easily as joy, peace, and compassion.
• The same moment lands differently on everyone. One woman found the splash refreshing, another found it enraging. The difference was what each one carried in.
• Reacting shows you what is in your cup. So does responding. Both are a mirror, not just a moment.
• Given a little space to process, most overreactions come into focus. That space is what turns a reaction into a response.

ACTION STEPS

1. Notice your knee-jerk. The next time life bumps you, cut off in traffic or let down by someone, watch what spills before you manage it.
2. Ask what is in the cup. Treat the spill as data about what you have been carrying, not proof of who you are.
3. Build in space. When something lands hard, give yourself a beat to process before you respond.
4. Find the ridiculous. When a situation is just absurd enough, choose to laugh instead of spin out.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"Whatever is in your cup is going to spill when you get bumped."

CONNECT
Shout out to my friend Jessica Cherry: Ladies Lifestyle Network Hays, Life of a Cherry Wife, Howdy Social.

Forged in the Dark is for people who've chosen to grow.
Follow @newsoulrising on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Book Jaime to speak: bookjaime.com
Music: @visacard_

Remember, we go forward and up.