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.

People tell me all the time how lucky I am. And there is something that looks a lot like Lucky Girl syndrome running through my life right now.

What they don't see are the thousands of hours underneath it.

You are the creator of your own reality. Whether you love where you are or you can't stand it, you built it, and every single thing you say, think, feel, and consume is still building it right now. That is either the most uncomfortable sentence you will read today or the most freeing one. Because if a belief you no longer even remember holding created the life you are living, then a new one can create the next one.

This episode is about taking honest inventory of what you consume, body, mind, and soul, and why the feed you are living inside might be the exact thing you keep asking to change. No blame. No beating yourself up. Just the truth about who is holding the pen.

So the only question left is what you do with it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You are the creator of your own reality, whether you like your current reality or not. Ownership is not blame. It is the doorway to change.
• A life you do not want was often built from a belief system you no longer hold. Find the belief that is still active enough to keep producing it.
• Everything you consume shapes you. The music, the shows, the books, the people, the scroll. It all feeds the reality you are living.
• Lucky Girl syndrome is not luck. It is the visible result of thousands of invisible hours retraining your brain and nervous system.
• When your physical reality does not match what you want, do not beat yourself up. Treat it as information and an opportunity.

ACTION STEPS

1. Take inventory. Honestly audit what you consume across body, mind, and soul for one full day.
2. Curate your feed like an algorithm. Stop feeding what you do not want and start searching for what you do.
3. Set the tone on purpose. Open each day the way you would open a session, by naming what is going well.
4. When something shows up that you do not want, get curious about the belief underneath it instead of spiraling into blame.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"I am the queen of surviving things that I never deserved. But I will never say that I didn't create them."

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.

There was a rattlesnake in my backyard. Seven feet of it, close enough to record, and what it did next flipped everything I thought I knew about who the dangerous ones really are.

Because we're taught to fear the snake and trust the smile. But the people who've actually hurt you, did any of them rattle first? The real danger rarely comes coiled and buzzing. It comes in a nice package, with the right words, from someone you'd already decided was safe.

This is the episode where I flip "snake in the grass" on its head. Not all snakes are bad. Not all shiny things are good. And learning to tell the difference might be the most important discernment you ever build.

What that rattler taught me on my back patio changed how I read people. Come find out why.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Not all threats come with a warning. The most dangerous people look trustworthy on the surface and strike when you least expect it.
• A snake in its own environment doesn't hunt you. It reacts when triggered, gives a warning, and wants to be left alone. The harmful people in your life do the opposite.
• At least the rattlesnake is honest about its fangs. Some people will deceive you while wearing the face of a friend.
• The story you inherited about who is "bad" can blind you. Question the label and read the actual behavior in front of you.
• Once you see a red flag, it is not your job to stay. Discernment is choosing who belongs in your life and who does not.

ACTION STEPS

1. Question the label. Notice where you have decided someone is safe or dangerous based on reputation or packaging instead of behavior.
2. Read the red flags in real time. When someone shows you an ulterior motive, believe it the first time.
3. When the warning signs are there, act on them. Seeing a pattern and staying anyway is a choice you can stop making.
4. Protect your circle on purpose. Decide who is a quality human worth your energy and who has to go.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"At least the snake doesn't lie about having fangs."

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.

There's something in your life that stopped working a long time ago. You know exactly what it is. And you're still showing up for it, out of guilt, loyalty, or the story that quitting means failing.

It doesn't.

This is your permission slip to spit out the gum, the piece that lost its flavor a year ago and you're somehow still chewing. The commitment that made sense back then and now just drains you. The loyalty that stopped being reciprocal. The version of your life you've outgrown but keep defending. Quitting the right thing isn't giving up. It's how you get your time, your energy, and yourself back.

I've had to make the hard quits: the marriage, the beliefs that kept me small, even the doctors who were keeping me sick. None of it was easy. All of it opened up everything that came after. So here's the question this episode leaves you with: what would open up in your life if you finally let go of the thing that's already over?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Quitting isn't giving up. Walking away from what's draining you is how you protect what you're building.
• The gum test: if it lost its flavor long ago and you're still chewing, that's your signal to let go.
• A choice can expire. What made sense ten years ago doesn't have to make sense for the life you're in now.
• "Quit" can mean pause. Releasing something today doesn't bar you from picking it back up later.
• Loyalty that isn't reciprocal, to a person, a belief, a version of you, is one of the hardest and most necessary things to release.

ACTION STEPS

1. Find your gum. Name the one commitment, relationship, or belief that lost its flavor and you're still chewing.
2. Test it against your life now, not the life you had when you started. Does it still fit?
3. Give yourself the permission out loud, including the option to pause rather than end it forever.
4. Redirect what you free up. Take that time and energy and put it toward what's actually working.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"I am not giving you a permission slip to give up on yourself. I am giving you a permission slip to quit on what is not working."

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: IG @visacard_

Remember, we always go forward and up.

We all get one — that season where everything is a last. Sometimes you see it coming. Sometimes it blindsides you. Either way, there's something in it worth learning.

Last week I sent my kid off to high school for the last first time. Last parent football meeting. Last gridiron moms' event. And I've spent the week holding space for a lot of crying mothers — women staring down an empty nest, unsure who they are on the other side of it. I'm one of them.

Here's what I keep coming back to: the number one regret people carry is their final interaction with someone they loved. The party they spent taking photos instead of living. The hug they didn't hold long enough. The "I love you" they assumed they'd get to say again. So this one flips that pain into instruction — using the goodbyes we regret as a map for the ones still ahead.

Because the moments that matter aren't only the big ones. They're the ordinary Wednesday-night dinners you assume you'll get a thousand more of. This could be the last normal one. If it were — what would you do differently, and what's stopping you from living that way right now?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We all face two kinds of lasts: the ones we see coming and the ones we don't. The unexpected ones teach us how to meet the expected ones.
• The most common regret people carry is their final interaction with someone they loved. Presence now is how you avoid it later.
• The moments worth protecting aren't just the milestones — they're the ordinary ones you assume are guaranteed.
• Regret and grief are hard teachers, but they're teachers. Don't numb the sadness of a goodbye; process it, then choose presence.
• You never know the weight of your words. A stranger's kindness can become a story you're still carrying — and passing on — twenty years later.

ACTION STEPS

1. Name your season. Ask honestly whether you're in a stretch of lasts right now, expected or not.
2. Protect the ordinary moments, not just the big ones. Treat the unremarkable Wednesday like it might be the one you'd miss.
3. Change one goodbye today. Hug longer, look them in the eyes, say the thing — operate like it could be the last.
4. Let the sadness be sad. Don't rush past it or talk yourself out of it. Feel it fully, then choose to be present.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"Embrace the sweet moments so that these bad moments you can throw away easier."

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've been quietly teaching mindfulness since the very beginning — and lately I've been reminded of just how much of what I teach comes back to it. So over the next couple of weeks, I'm folding mindfulness tools back into the episodes. This one starts with sleep.

It came from a morning walk with a friend — a genuine high performer, the kind who says "I'm good, I'm good, I'm good" three times before she'll admit she's dangerously close to burnout. She works from a 6:30 a.m. call until the tank is empty, then flips on the TV and vegges out until sleep finally comes. If that rhythm sounds even a little familiar, this one's for you.

Here's the truth underneath it: high performers don't have a discipline problem at bedtime — they have an open-loop problem. Your brain won't let you rest while it's still buffering the day. So I gave her a ten-minute practice to close those loops before your head hits the pillow. Not a full ritual. A baby step. And it works whether you're a high performer or someone who just can't turn it off.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You can't out-hustle bad sleep. The quality of your rest may be feeding the stress and anxiety you're trying to power through.
• High performers wake through the night because the brain keeps re-loading unfinished loops — like a screen stuck buffering.
• The fix isn't finishing everything. It's deciding, on purpose, to leave the rest until tomorrow so your brain can close the cycle.
• Your growth integrates while you rest, not while you grind. You do the work awake; it locks in asleep.
• Deep, shorter sleep beats a long night of waking every couple of hours. Quality outranks quantity.

ACTION STEPS

1. Do a five-minute brain dump before bed — pen and paper or talk-to-text. Empty the whole day and to-do list so you leave it, not carry it into the night.
2. Set the intention to close the loop. You don't have to finish the tasks — you have to consciously choose to leave them until tomorrow.
3. Follow it with five minutes of something calming: breath work, meditation, or legs up the wall.
4. If you only have time for one, choose legs up the wall — feet above the heart signals your nervous system to power down.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"The intention that you have when you are writing this is to leave your day and not take it into the night."

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.

A children's toy, stepping backwards, and a realization mid-yoga practice. Strange combination — stay with me.

I was deep in a long practice when I noticed my hips shifting back as I walked up the mat. A tiny step backward, over and over, without meaning to. And once I saw it, I couldn't stop seeing it — which raised a question I want to hand to you: when do you step back, and what is that step actually costing you?

Because not every backward is the same. Some of it is a quiet delay you can put a stop to today. And some of it is the kind that knocks the wind out of you right when everything was finally going well.

It took me years and tears to understand the difference — and why the second one might be the best thing that's ever happened to you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There are two kinds of backward: the tiny unconscious steps and the big pullback. Naming which one you're in changes what you do about it.
• Small steps back rarely ruin you — they just delay you. Catch them with your conscious mind and turn them into side steps that keep you moving forward.
• The big pullback is a slingshot. The tension you're resisting is the exact force that launches you into what's next.
• Fear, failure, and uncertainty are feelings, not facts. Standing in them doesn't make them true.
• A pullback is often an attention-getter — a check on whether you're awake enough to see what it's asking you to correct.

ACTION STEPS

1. Catch your small steps back this week. Name one recurring detour and decide, out loud, to stop it.
2. Turn backward into sideways. When you feel yourself retreating, look for the side step that keeps you moving forward instead.
3. When a big pullback hits, pause before you call it failure. Ask what it might be asking you to see or close.
4. Reframe the tension. Instead of "why is this happening," try "what am I about to be launched into?"

NOTABLE QUOTE
"Sometimes we have to be pulled significantly backwards to propel forward. That's the slingshot."

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.

Life isn't about finding a road with no surprises. It's about becoming someone who can handle whatever's around the bend.

Get in the car with me. It's 4:40 a.m., dark, and I'm driving to meet my run group — the same route twice a week. A narrow two-lane road, 35 miles an hour, deer that leap out of nowhere, brights that blind you as they crest the hill. And here's the thing: every single morning, I pass two chances to hop on the wide, smooth, well-lit highway instead. Every time, I choose the dark road anyway.

That choice stopped being about driving somewhere on this particular morning. Because the highway will get you there faster — until you arrive on autopilot, can't remember the drive, and realize you left behind the very thing you came for. The two-lane road won't let you check out. It asks for all of you.

So here's the question I want you sitting with this weekend: where in your life are you sailing the highway on autopilot — and where are you on the dark road, wide awake, trusting you can handle whatever steps out in front of you?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The goal was never a road without surprises. It's becoming someone who can navigate whatever comes.
• The highway is faster and easier — but it invites autopilot, and autopilot means you miss the drive, the hazards, and the lessons.
• The dark two-lane road makes autopilot impossible. It demands presence, and presence is where the growth lives.
• Neither road is wrong. We all take the highway somewhere. The value is in noticing which one you're defaulting to, and why.
• Self-trust isn't the absence of hazards. It's expecting them and knowing you'll handle whatever shows up.

ACTION STEPS

1. Map your roads. Name one area of life where you're on the highway, on autopilot, and one where you're on the dark road, fully awake.
2. Catch yourself checking out. Notice where you're moving fast and not present — the drive you can't remember taking.
3. Choose one dark road on purpose this week. Pick the slower, harder path where you know challenges are coming, and stay present for it.
4. Reframe the hazards. When something jumps into the road, treat it as preparation for what's waiting at the destination, not an interruption.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"I know this road. But what I know better than this road is myself."

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.

If you've ever waited for an apology that never came, this one's for you.

There are three kinds of forgiveness — for yourself, for the people who are genuinely sorry, and for the ones who aren't. That third one is where we're spending our time today, because I know that particular bus stop well.

Picture a bus stop. You're waiting on the apology bus. It was supposed to be here five minutes ago, two months ago, two years ago. And here's what nobody tells you: the route was changed. The bus isn't late. It isn't broken. It's never coming.

That's a hard truth to sit with. But there's a way to get up from that bench and get on with your life — and it doesn't require the other person to ever hear a word of it. This is about setting yourself free from weight that was never yours to carry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Forgiveness isn't for the person who wronged you. It's for you — the release is the whole point.
• Forgiveness is not reconciliation. You can let something go completely without letting the person back in.
• You did the best you could with the tools you had then. Once you've owned it and corrected course, carrying the shame past that serves no one.
• Some apologies are never coming. The person who won't admit they were part of the problem leaves you nowhere to go — and waiting keeps you living in the past.
• You can forgive someone who isn't sorry without ever contacting them. The words are for you to say, not for them to hear.
• If the resentment hasn't lifted, the forgiveness hasn't fully happened yet. Releasing it is the test.

ACTION STEPS

1. Ask the real question: where in my life is forgiveness needed — for myself, for someone sorry, or for someone who isn't?
2. Forgive yourself first. Hands on heart, breathe, and release what you've already corrected. Make it quick, make it real.
3. For the apology that's never coming, say the words for yourself: "I forgive you for what you're not sorry for." No call, no text, no letter required.
4. Check the release. If resentment, shame, or anger is still there, sit with it again — that's the signal the work isn't finished.

NOTABLE QUOTE
"The bus isn't broken. The bus isn't delayed. The bus is never coming."

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.