Ep. 27 -

In this episode, I explore the profound difference between being self-centered & placing yourself at the center of your own life.

So many of us carry a deep fear of being seen as selfish. We learn to self-sacrifice, to put others first, and to abandon our own needs in order to belong. Our culture even celebrates this kind of self-erasure. But what if there is another way?

Through my own lived experiences and decades of guiding others, I’ve come to see that much of the heartache we face stems from confusing martyrdom with love. True service doesn’t come from self-abandonment. It comes from being rooted in our center — aligned with our truth, our values, and our integrity.

We’ll talk about:✨ The cultural fear of selfishness and how it drives self-sacrifice✨ Why identifying your own needs often brings up shame or guilt✨ The difference between self-centeredness and centering-in-self✨ How trauma plays into narcissism, projection, and distorted service✨ A simple embodied practice to help you reconnect with your inner compass✨ Why over-service leads to burnout, resentment, and disconnection✨ How honoring yourself first allows you to serve others sustainably

At the heart of this conversation is a reminder: putting yourself at the center of your life is not selfish — it is sacred. When you live from that center, you give from overflow, not depletion. You embody service rooted in love, authenticity, and true alignment.

If you’ve ever wrestled with guilt for prioritizing yourself, or wondered how to balance caring for others without losing yourself in the process, this episode is for you.

Have you ever felt like your emotions were steering your ship, pulling you off course without your consent? In this episode of Navigating the Waves, we explore how emotions are not obstacles to overcome but powerful tools for conscious navigation. By learning the language of our feelings, we can uncover hidden wisdom, strengthen relationships, and live with greater alignment.

I share personal stories, reflective prompts, and practical insights on how to:

* Reframe emotions as allies rather than enemies

* Recognize the difference between being self-centered and centered in self

* Use fear, anger, and other intense emotions as teachers for growth

* Identify projection and own your emotional landscape

* Dance with your emotions in a way that fosters healing and resilience

Reflective Prompts from this Episode:

* Did your last emotional reaction come from deep awareness or from autopilot?

* When has fear signaled both protection and an area for growth?

* Can you recall a time when you projected emotions onto someone else?

* Have you ever discovered a deeper feeling hiding beneath another?

Why Listen:This conversation will give you tools to master the art of conscious emotional navigation, so you can meet life’s waves with clarity, courage, and grace.

✨ Tune in now and start seeing your emotions as the compass they truly are.

Ep. 25 - In this episode, we’re diving deep into the real meaning of changing timelines — and why it’s not as mystical or abstract as it sounds. At its core, shifting timelines is about the micro-choices you make every single day and how they shape the trajectory of your life.

I’ll share how the tiniest moments of courage, self-honoring, and alignment with your values can completely redirect your reality. We’ll talk about:

* Why the little things are actually the big things

* How everyday micro-decisions determine your path

* The role of courage in shifting your life’s trajectory

* Why self-love is the hidden foundation of timeline change

* How to notice + interrupt old patterns that pull you back

* Practical ways to step into a new reality, starting now

By the end of this episode, you’ll see how your daily choices, even the ones that feel small, can become powerful declarations that reshape your life from the inside out.

Resources + Links Mentioned:

* Become a paid subscriber to join my monthly Open Circle Sessions — a 90-minute live Zoom gathering for community, reflection, and integration. Recordings provided for those who can’t attend live.

Let’s Connect:

* Instagram: @reclaimwithin

* Podcast on Substack:

Ep. - 24

In this episode, Ash invites you into a conversation about the shadow, not as something to fix or eradicate, but as an essential and sacred part of what it means to be human.

She shares personal reflections on recent encounters with shadow (both hers + others), and explores how shadow work is actually a deep devotion to integration, wholeness, and love. You'll learn how to spot the shadow, how to work with it, and how embracing it is one of the most transformative things we can do — not just for ourselves, but for the collective.

This episode is a gentle yet powerful reminder: your shadow is not your shame, it’s your teacher.

🖤 In This Episode, We Explore:

* What it really means to “have a shadow”

* Why the shadow never goes away and why that’s not a problem

* How unintegrated shadow shows up in our culture and relationships

* Five simple ways to begin working with your shadow

* Why shadow work is not about becoming “better,” but about becoming whole

* A prayer for sitting with the parts of you that are ready to be seen with love

🔑 Key Takeaways

* Shadow work isn’t about perfection it’s about wholeness.

* Every emotion, every reaction, every judgment holds a clue to something that wants to be integrated.

* When we suppress our shadow, it acts out unconsciously often as projection, blame, or inner war.

* By tending to your shadow with curiosity + compassion, you shift your inner world… and by extension, the world around you.

💭 Reflection Prompt

Take a moment to ask yourself:What part of me is asking to be seen with love… not fixed, but witnessed?Let this be your starting point.

🧡 Connect + Share

If this episode touched something within you, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or tag me on Instagram @reclaimwithin I’d love to hear what it stirred in you.

Until next time,

– Ash

🎙 Episode 23 — Guilt & Shame: The Hive-Mind

Welcome back to Reclaim Within.

In today’s episode, I’m naming something I’ve tracked for years — the invisible thread of guilt + shame that runs through our collective consciousness like a hidden frequency. It’s subtle, inherited, and woven into our culture so deeply that most of us don’t even realize we’re swimming in it.

This episode is a gentle but bold invitation to see clearly, to remember who you truly are beyond the distortions we’ve been taught to carry.

We explore:

💭 Why so many of us mistake guilt + shame for moral integrity🔮 How even sacred studies like astrology or consciousness get distorted by shame-based interpretations🧬 The ancestral + cultural roots of the “good girl” / “good boy” programming🌊 The difference between being good and being whole🕊 What it means to reclaim your clarity, vision, and truth… even if it disrupts the norm

I share from my own journey of people-pleasing, seeing patterns that others didn’t want to name, and how stepping away from astrology for a while helped me return with new eyes.

This episode is for the ones who see, for the ones reclaiming their voice, and for anyone ready to break free from the guilt + shame hive-mind to live a life rooted in wholeness.

✨ You’re not here to be punished. You’re here to reclaim within. ✨

Resources Mentioned:

→ Want more? Subscribe to the newsletter: reclaimwithin.substack.com→ Connect with me on Instagram: @reclaimwithin→ Leave a review or share with a friend walking this path with you 🤍

My prayer for this episode:May you see yourself clearly.Not through the lens of who you’re supposed to be But through the sacred remembrance of who you already are.

🎙 Ep 22 - You Can’t Heal What You Can’t Feel: And You Can’t Feel Without This One Thing

Reclaim Within Podcast | Hosted by Ash Brouwer

In This Episode:What does it really mean to feel safe? Not just in theory, but in the nervous system, in the breath, in the bones.

In today’s episode, Ash explores the sacred ground of felt safety , why it matters, how it’s often misunderstood, and what it takes to both experience and offer safe space in a world that often confuses control with care.

This is a love letter to the nervous system, and a reminder that healing only blooms where safety is real + embodied.

We explore:✨ Why safety is a felt experience, not a concept✨ The trap of “familiar hell” + how it tricks the nervous system✨ How false safety takes away agency, even with good intentions✨ What it really takes to hold safe space for another✨ The sacred interdependence of being held while holding others✨ Why integration requires trust + true belonging✨ A reflection for anyone seeking or offering transformation

Reflection Questions:

* Do I feel safe in my body, in this space, in this relationship?

* Am I being lovingly held in my own growth?

* Who are the mirrors that help me see what I can’t yet see?

A Living Invitation:Ash is opening a monthly Open Circle Session for paid subscribers — a 90-minute gathering to explore what’s alive in our personal processes + the collective field.Held virtually at the end of each month, these circles are recorded and centered around presence, astrology, integration, and community.

🌀 Become a paid subscriber to join the first circle this August.

Resources + Links:→ Subscribe to Ash’s newsletter on Substack: reclaimwithin.substack.com→ Follow on Instagram: @reclaimwithin

→ Join the SUBSTACK community as a paid subscriber to access Open Circles, a live call held at the end of each month starting in August!

With love, reverence + devotion to the sacred dance of remembering together.— Ash

Ep. 21 -

✨ Episode Summary (reposted due to audio issues)

In this episode of Reclaim Within, Ash explores the Hermetic Law of Polarity, a spiritual principle that reveals how opposites are not enemies, but reflections of the same energetic thread. Through heartfelt storytelling & soul-rooted reflection, Ash unpacks how paradox is not a mistake, but a sacred invitation to transform, to expand, and to walk more honestly with life.

From the fog of confusion that precedes clarity…To the discomfort that arises before trust is embodied…To the grip of control that reveals where surrender is truly needed…

This episode guides you through the deep initiatory path of Clarity, Trust + Surrender… offering insights on how to hold the tension of opposites with integrity, compassion, + curiosity.

🔑 Topics Covered

* What the Law of Polarity teaches us about paradox

* How opposites serve as initiations, not punishments

* Navigating the fog of confusion on the way to clarity

* The tender terrain of building inner trust

* How to work with life instead of resisting its flow

* The practice of attuning to resonance through contrast

* A closing prayer to support you through your own alchemical journey

💭 Featured Quote

“Paradox is not a mistake, it’s a feature of this reality. And when we stop resisting contradiction, we begin to access the kind of wholeness that changes everything.”

🌿 Listen Now

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts — and if this episode touches your heart, share it with someone walking through their own initiation.Don’t forget to leave a review to help others find this sacred space. 🤍

Ep 20. - In today’s episode of Reclaim Within, I speak from my heart about something I’ve cried over, wrestled with, grown through, and now know as truth in my bones:

✨ True transformation is not a moment — it’s a devotion.It’s not the lightning bolt. It’s the tending of the fire.It’s not the ceremony. It’s how you live after.It’s not a performance of perfection — it’s the quiet, courageous choice to return to yourself, again and again.

This episode explores:

* Why transformation isn’t instantaneous (and why that’s a gift)

* How nature reminds us that life is always evolving

* The difference between awakening + integration

* What it means to take radical responsibility for your path

* Small, sacred choices that weave the real transformation

* Why you are the only one who can do this work

* How choosing your path changes your lineage and the world

I also share stories from my own journey — where I’ve fallen, risen, and remembered the sacredness of this becoming.

If this episode touches you, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps ripple this work further.

STAY CONNECTED:

💌 Substack — Weekly reflections + sacred writing📸 Instagram — Daily inspiration + stories📺 YouTube — Visual teachings + medicine moments

I am so honored to be here with you — walking this path of reclaiming within, of becoming more whole, and remembering the sacredness of life.

Within love,Ash

Ep. 19 -

In this heart-opening episode, Ash dives into the often misunderstood but deeply human experience of projection. Through personal stories, psychological insights, and soulful reflections, Ash explores how this pattern can lead to disconnection, judgment, and the habit of tearing others down. More importantly, she offers a compassionate invitation to witness ourselves honestly, return to empathy, and become more intentional in how we relate.

Whether you've been on the giving or receiving end of projection, this episode reminds you that you are not alone. This is a collective unraveling, and through awareness and tenderness, we can shift the way we live, love, and lead.

In This Episode You’ll Learn

• What projection is & how it can show up in everyday life• Why we sometimes tear others down even when we don’t mean to• The deeper root of projection as a defense mechanism• How to develop self awareness and interrupt the pattern• Practices to reclaim your power with empathy, not shame

If today’s episode resonates

Please consider sharing it with someone who may need a gentle reminder that they’re not alone, not in projection, not in their messiness, not in their humanity. The more we talk about these things with compassion, the more we can shift the culture toward deeper connection.

Until next time…May you stay close to your truth, your tenderness, and the sacred power you hold within.

follow ash on instagram or substack @reclaimwithin

Ep. 18 -

In this episode, I explore three powerful words that have become part of our shared language around healing: activation, discomfort, + trigger. Though often used interchangeably, each of these experiences carries its own energetic signature, emotional impact, + role in our inner work.

Together, we unpack:

* What each term really means

* How to recognize the difference between discomfort + a true trigger

* Why activation can be exciting, destabilizing, or both + how to work with it

* How all three of these states are interconnected in the process of transformation

Through reflections, examples, + storytelling, I invite you into a deeper understanding of your emotional world so you can meet these moments with more discernment, grace, + grounded self-awareness.

In This Episode, I Share:

* The definitions + distinctions between activation, discomfort, and triggers

* Personal and client examples of how they show up in daily life

* Why understanding these states helps build emotional resilience

* How to relate to each of them with compassion instead of judgment

* What each one is trying to teach you about your healing + growth

This episode is for you if you’ve ever asked:

* “Why am I feeling this way?”

* “Is this a trigger or just something new and scary?”

* “How do I know when I’m growing vs. re-living something old?”

🌿 Listen in for clarity, tools, + the reminder that your inner responses are not wrong they are sacred invitations to meet yourself more fully.

Subscribe to Reclaim Within for weekly episodes on personal growth, emotional healing, + building your inner kingdom with honor, dignity, + respect.