Checking in about where we’re currently at

Dreaming up our wedding and finding our venue through Pinterest

Starting our planning for the wedding in January 2022

Rachael’s story about finding her dream wedding dress and her recommendations about finding your dress

How Rachael’s surgery and healing postponed our planning for the wedding

The wedding situation in 2022 when the world opened up again

The saving grace of getting married on a Monday and not on the weekend

The value of building relationships with the people who are a part of your wedding day

Finding the officiant, photographer and day-of coordinator

How our day-of coordinator made the wedding so smooth and allowed us to be present and grounded

Planning our ceremony as a beautiful ritual and all the parts that made our ceremony special

The day of our wedding leading up to the ceremony and getting ready

Rachael’s experience of her grandma’s energy getting channelled through one of her friends 

The experience of our first look and why it was so beautiful for us

The inevitability of compromises on the wedding day, and the little things that came up on the wedding day

All the little things that created a sacred experience for our ceremony and why so many people thought it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies they’ve ever attended.

Reading our wedding vows

The power of marriage to bring people and communities together

The amazing reception

Rachael’s closing thoughts about the wedding, and normalizing the sadness that can come after the wedding

Justin’s closing thoughts around the value of being present and grounded during the wedding.

Rachael gets into her process around calling Justin in after a two-year period of dating unavailable men

Rachael’s decision to delete the dating apps off her phone

The impact of Rachael’s grandma’s passing two weeks before meeting Justin

How we met for the first time at a show

The magnetic attraction that occurred between us when we first met

How Justin just felt different than the other guys Rachael was dating

Stories from the early days of our relationship

Justin’s perspective on the early days of the relationship

When we made the decision to be boyfriend and girlfriend

When Rachael said “I”m falling in love with you.” & Justin’s response.

The period of our long-distance relationship & the experiences out doing field research together

When Justin first said, “I love you.”

Falling deeper in love at Basscoast music festival, and becoming partners in life.

Moving in together

The period of time after Lin passed, and the deepening of our relationship through the grief

The period of time when we started building our business together & stepping into the entrepreneurial path

Justin navigating the end of his Master’s degree and going to Mexico for his Fungi conference

When Rachael joined him in Merida, Mexico

Our mutual proposal in a Mayan shop in Merida, and the story of our engagement rings

Our decision to have a long engagement

The full circle story of us coming together and the connection between how Justin and Rachael’s Grandfather had the same energy

Stay tuned for our wedding story in Part 2 in the next episode.

Diving into conscious relating and asking for what you need in relationship

What Rachael believes a conscious relationship is, whether with a person or something you are connecting to; being intentional and present

A conscious relationship is not void of disagreement and is not all rainbows and butterflies all the time

A conscious relationship is being willing to do the shadow work

The process of being in right relationship between Rachael and Justin

How we have a fundamental value of growth and are willing to learn all the various things about the other person

The value of having standards and some of Rachael’s standards around spirituality in relationship

The early disagreements around the language of spirituality and our differing understandings of what it meant to us

Holding different perspectives in relationship

The amount of learning and important difficult conversations that are required early on in relationships

Setting boundaries in relationships and expression of emotions

Our boundaries around disagreement and not “fighting”

Working through disagreements by understanding that the outcome is for us to come out the otherside together

The need for inner work individually in relationships

Justin unlearning people-pleasing and asking for support around the house

The importance of understanding the roles in your relationship and recognizing when there is a need to shift the roles

When you don’t communicate your needs you will become resentful

Asking for what you need is deeply important

Rachael’s love languages and Justin learning how to meet those needs

Navigating your partner’s needs during heightened emotional states

Recognizing that most of the time heightened emotion is not directed at you

Being there for a partner in a dissociated state (Freeze response)

Learning your partner’s trauma responses and their history in order to be there for them

Communicating without blaming and shaming

The need for vulnerability to reach intimacy

How you are in relationship is how you are in relationship with life

Asking your partner to rise up and meet you where you want to be

Having the hard conversations about changing, and building a beautiful relationship through that

What Rachael would say to someone who keeps ending up with the same type of person that isn’t the right fit.

Becoming the type of person that you want to attract into your life.

Getting clear on what your needs are, what your values are, what you like and what you don’t like

We talk about our past with cannabis, the discomfort that came from smoking some night before and respecting the plant through ritual and ceremony

Diving into a discussion about discomfort

The shared value of growth in our relationship, and how growth is uncomfortable.

What Justin’s relationship with discomfort is and how it’s shifted, surrounding his ability to handle physical and mental discomfort

Rachael’s history with discomfort as a young person experiencing trauma, and her capacity for spiritual and mental discomfort

The interconnection between the body, mind, emotion, and spirit

Creating systems that expand the capacity to hold the depth of discomfort

Rachael’s ability to overcome her panic attacks

Justin’s expansion of emotional capacity through his relationship with Rachael and the vulnerability in communication and expression

What spiritual discomfort is, and the connection to values and purpose

Rachael’s journey with awareness and her spiritual awakening through becoming healthy in her body

Justin’s role in Rachael’s healing journey and opening to her emotions

What opened for Justin in the early stages of their relationship

How Justin is really connected to his emotions

Discomfort doesn’t mean you are unsafe & you can breathe through anything

How Rachael’s breast-reduction surgery was a massive portal to all that was uncomfortable from her past

One of the most loving things we can do for ourselves is to befriend discomfort

Being in right-relationship with discomfort is especially important for facilitators of breathwork and psychedelics

Sensations are just sensations, we give them meaning by how we relate to them

Cold exposure is safe and through repeated exposure, you expand your capacity

Choosing to intentionally make yourself uncomfortable, and coming to it with a neutral curiosity has the biggest possibility for expansion

You learn regulation and how to orient your nervous system through discomfort.

The concept of Eustress, good stress, chosen stress

The need for balance and harmony with short bursts of stress paired with time being calm

Chosen stress as a way to stay calm when under stress, and having a flexible nervous system

Variation in capacity of women throughout their menstrual cycle, and the difference with men

Justin’s top three things to expand your capacity

Lots of big changes can occur in the moment to moment experiences

Why we started this podcast, the reasons for both of us and what the show is all about

Introducing who we are, and what we do in the world

Touching on all the different potential topics that we will be getting into around love, leadership, & liberation.

Getting into the topic of mornings and what they mean for us

Rachael’s love for mornings and the practices that she does & her journey to come to that love of mornings

Shifting from unhealthy habits around evenings and mornings and making sure to get a good sleep

Justin’s morning routine and his structure starting with cold showers in the mornings

Understanding that the morning is a point when your subconscious mind is most active and can provide insight into what is happening under the surface

The work Rachael has done reprogramming her body and mind to build resilience in the morning.

What to do if you “don’t have time in the morning”

Thinking about who you want to be provides motivation for creating the routine that works for you

Bringing awareness into who you want to be

Checking in with your needs to find a way to replace habits that don’t serve who you want to be.

The terrible thing about scrolling your phone, or watching the news right in the morning; playing Russian roulette with your day

The vulnerability of the morning, and setting the tone for the rest of your day.

Understanding that your mornings can be flexible, and how Rachael creates that flexibility for herself

Developing your identity around who you get to be in the morning

Compassionate Self-leadership; holding yourself to a standard, but recognizing you are also human

Using your morning practices as a foundation to always return to even when times are difficult.

Getting clear on your vision and what’s not working anymore