Spiraling Higher

Throwing it back to one of our most downloaded episodes which dove into the shame of PROCRASTINATION.

In this episode, we reflect on the journey of creating the podcast—how long it really took to get here, the habits that once held us back, and how we freed ourselves of paralyzing indecison and self-judgment.

What we hope you take away from this episode is that procrastination IS NOT laziness—it’s fear. So if you've been struggling to make progress or momentum, this conversation will help you see that procrastination is often a misguided attempt to protect you from disappointment and help you heal it.

Highlights:

-The backstory behind Spiraling Higher and the role procrastination played

-Why procrastination isn’t a flaw but a form of self-protection

-How to break the cycle of shame and fear around “not doing enough”

-Strategies to feel safer taking imperfect action

If you’ve ever struggled with procrastination, this episode will make you feel seen, understood, and empowered to take your next step.

Don't forget to join the FREE Spiraling Higher Community and attend one of our free monthly connection calls in the new year where we meet to chat about what we're spiraling through with warmth, compassion and curiosity.

--

--

Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!):

https://tinyurl.com/Spiralinghighercommunity

Join our retreat waitlist for APRIL 2025 by signing up here:

https://shorturl.at/fojjy

Heal your money wound & manifest abundance in Sam's newest course 'Abundantly Ever After:'

https://simplifyingsam.kartra.com/page/AbundantlyEverAfter

--

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:

https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coaching

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:

https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbte

Follow Spiraling Higher:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigher

Follow Simplifying Sam:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.sam

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.sam

Follow Gina:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabourne

For all inquiries, email us at:

[email protected]

The holiday season is in full force and you might be finding yourself amidst trigger after trigger! Or maybe you're dreading the final week of the year because of all the obligations you need to meet for others, not to mention the stress you put on yourself to have a "perfect" holiday season!

Watch this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/G_x7buVBTS8

Although this time is advertised to be merry and bright, we all know that it's also a time of familiar stress and age-old emotional triggers...possibly causing you to feel guilt, anxiety, regret or sadness.

In this episode, we dive into the three most common triggers of the season: FOOD, FAMILY, FINANCES. Between both of us, we have had our fair share of triggers (holidays or not) with respect to the 3 F's and share our personal experiences navigating them.

This conversation is ideal even if it's not currently the holiday season because the way we move through and heal from triggers is the same all year round - compassionately and warmly relating to your internal experience with acceptance. We are here to offer you ways to prepare, manage, and move through these triggers consciously and with intention. Rather than letting these triggers take over your joy, we suggest simple perspective shifts to remind you of your power to choose how you experience this season.

This episode is for you if you want to approach the holidays with trust in yourself, knowing that getting triggered doesn’t have to ruin your holiday experience. You are bigger than your triggers, and with these mindset shifts, you can create a holiday season that feels grounded, intentional, and meaningful.

--

Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!):

https://tinyurl.com/Spiralinghighercommunity

Join our retreat waitlist for APRIL 2025 by signing up here:

https://shorturl.at/fojjy

Heal your money wound & manifest abundance in Sam's newest course 'Abundantly Ever After:'

https://simplifyingsam.kartra.com/page/AbundantlyEverAfter

--

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:

https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coaching

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:

https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbte

Follow Spiraling Higher:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigher

Follow Simplifying Sam:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.sam

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.sam

Follow Gina:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabourne

For all inquiries, email us at:

[email protected]

With the holidays upon us, along with their manufactured capitalist joys, are you starting to feel stressed about the year coming to a close? Maybe you're beginning to feel behind as you reflect on the goals you set for 2024?

Watch this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/GrVUms7-fMA

This conversation was inspired by our own personal experiences of feeling panicked when previous years came to an end. They often brought up a lot of self-judgment related to our yearly expectations and goals. Instead of truly celebrating, resting, or expressing gratitude and joy, we’d get stuck in spirals of resistance about how the year hadn’t met our expectations—or we’d project our fears onto the upcoming year.

Rather than rejoicing in all that we had done throughout the year, December became a sort of "Judgment Day," where we’d review our shortcomings and inevitably end up setting extremely high standards for the new year. This, of course, creates stress and distracts us from the present, because we're so busy thinking about what could have been or what should be next year, that we can't even be here- now.

This conversation will be a healing balm for anyone who struggles to be present during the holidays without incessant stress and self-judgment. It will empower you to initiate a sense of renewal in any given moment, rather than waiting for a future day to bring that to you.

This episode is for you if:

-You experience the end of the year with stress, panic, and self-judgment

-You tend to set New Year’s resolutions only to end up disappointed in yourself weeks or months later

-You can’t fully rest or enjoy yourself during the holidays because you’re already thinking about how to tackle 2025

--

Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!):

https://tinyurl.com/Spiralinghighercommunity

Join our retreat waitlist for APRIL 2025 by signing up here:

https://shorturl.at/fojjy

Heal your money wound & manifest abundance in Sam's newest course 'Abundantly Ever After:'

https://simplifyingsam.kartra.com/page/AbundantlyEverAfter

--

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:

https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coaching

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:

https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbte

Follow Spiraling Higher:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigher

Follow Simplifying Sam:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.sam

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.sam

Follow Gina:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabourne

For all inquiries, email us at:

[email protected]

Do you constantly feel the pressure to grow, grow, grow? Maybe you’re an entrepreneur and feel like you are always behind in sales, content, clients, etc. Or perhaps you feel constantly behind in your own personal growth. It’s as if there is always more money to make, more books to read, or more habits to change.

Watch this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/z0xmdqrgAW4

So in this episode, we offer the perspective that has completely freed us of the pressure to constantly scale and grow. We are still creating, showing up and serving our community…but NOT at the cost of our own sanity and health. We have re-committed to our original intentions for this podcast and have chosen the path of organic, delicious, sustainable growth over forced expansion - which is a pattern we all downloaded from the capitalism society and norms we are steeped in.

And listen, growth is not bad! But it’s also not inherently good either. It’s neutral. By listening to this conversation, your core beliefs about growth will be challenged and give you the space to consider what you truly want out of the things you keep trying to grow. It’s time to take a step back from the rat race and think deeply about your own unique recipe for the life satisfaction you crave.

Timestamps:

01:50 The Decision to Not Scale

04:57 Reconnecting with Intentions

09:56 Challenging The “I Must Always Grow” Narrative

12:37 The Cost of Ceaseless Growth

15:44 Finding Balance in Entrepreneurship

19:48 Redefining Success and Satisfaction

23:57 The Illusion of Constant Growth

27:41 Embracing Change and Preferences

32:32 The Freedom to Choose

--

Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!):

https://tinyurl.com/Spiralinghighercommunity

Join our retreat waitlist for APRIL 2025 by signing up here:

https://shorturl.at/fojjy

Heal your money wound & manifest abundance in Sam's newest course 'Abundantly Ever After:'

https://simplifyingsam.kartra.com/page/AbundantlyEverAfter

--

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:

https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coaching

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:

https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbte

Follow Spiraling Higher:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigher

Follow Simplifying Sam:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.sam

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.sam

Follow Gina:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabourne

For all inquiries, email us at:

[email protected]

What is the difference between intentions and expectations? Well, we wish we knew before we created a LOT of internal suffering for ourselves! But today, we have a chat about living intentionally versus expectantly and how to feel for the difference along with some tell-tale signs of which paradigm you’re operating from.

Before we discovered and integrated the Laws of Attraction and Assumption, we gripped SO tightly to our expectations. We had a laundry list of conditions that absolutely had to met in order to just feel “okay.” If any one of these conditions or expectations were not met, we would be wrecked with disappointment, self blame and guilt.

It was a nasty cycle. Every time that disappointment would hit, we would just repeat the cycle again by becoming attached to a new expectation that would hopefully save us from the pain of the previous disappointment. After suffering in this cycle for years, we realized there was another way to live - a life that actually didn’t need expectations at all.

We switched our expectations to intentions - self made promises that we could uphold in the present moment no matter what the conditions were…

…and it changed everything.

If you are someone who struggles with disappointment, maybe even refuses to set big goals or go after what they want, this episode for you.

Don’t forget to drop into the free community afterward to tell us what expectations you have traded in for your powerful intentions, and how that’s shifted things for you!

--

Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!):

https://tinyurl.com/Spiralinghighercommunity

Join our retreat waitlist for APRIL 2025 by signing up here:

https://shorturl.at/fojjy

Heal your money wound & manifest abundance in Sam's newest course 'Abundantly Ever After:' https://simplifyingsam.kartra.com/page/AbundantlyEverAfter

--

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:

https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coaching

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:

https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbte

Follow Spiraling Higher:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigher

Follow Simplifying Sam:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.sam

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.sam

Follow Gina:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabourne

For all inquiries, email us at:

[email protected]

Spiralers...what a TREAT!!! We had the lovely Flynn Skidmore join us to have a deeply healing and grounding conversation that soothed generational wounds, the superiority vs. inferiority complex, and the resistance to acceptance. If you are not already familiar with Flynn, he is someone who has been fascinated by the unconscious from an early age which led him to his previous practice as a therapist with extensive training in Internal Family Systems, Neuro Linguistic Programming, and Somatic Experiencing. His primary intention for clients all around the world is to accelerate evolution. By diving deeply into the wounds, friction, and patterning that prevent us from creating momentum, he offers an uncanny ability to bring warmth to the parts of us that we perceive as darkness - freeing up energy to become more creative and loving.

Because Sam personally knows and has worked with Flynn, this conversation felt like 3 friends exploring their parallel perspectives on generational wounds, feeling unseen by a parent, meeting your ego, and how to truly grow and get what you desire from your relationships. Gina shares her own vulnerable experience of feeling unseen by her mother and the impact it has had on her, while Flynn offers a liberating perspective on healing that is counter to what many healers offer these days.

Through this conversation, we all get to be deeply vulnerable and transparent about the ways in which we derived value and self-importance in our lives and the underlying fears and desires behind those behaviors (shadow work!)

But perhaps the most compelling element of this conversation was Flynn's approach to the terrifying fear, "What if I don't reach my potential?" and "Why won't the other person change?" His perspective and emphasis on personal responsibility and independence is a paradigm shift and he offers his very own co-creation framework: shared vision, capacity to execute, rate of execution, and satisfaction with rate of execution. Flynn also explains that relational satisfaction comes down to aligning visions and having satisfactory rates of execution with respect to that very vision in relationships. He also explores the themes of frustration and dissatisfaction in relationship and identifies how you can overcome these.

If you're still reading these, trust me...this one's good. It's soul food for the human who is actively doing the inner work and by the end of this episode, you will better understand the behaviors that inform our false sense of superiority or value and the transformative powers of acceptance, curiosity and personal responsibility.

Timestamps:

00:00 Feeling Unseen in Parent-Child Relationships

03:35 Healing Generational Wounds

13:54 How the Ego Derives Value and Self-Importance

25:21 The Power of Curiosity and Compassion

26:04 Healing and Transforming Unconscious Wounds

28:17 Recycling Painful Patterns and Repurposing Traits

29:32 Moving Towards a Different Fuel Source

30:35 Tapping into Trust and Overcoming Fear

31:36 The Process of Letting Go and Opening Up

33:15 Understanding Fear as a Motivator for Achievement

34:30 The Transition from Fear to Warmth and Compassion

37:14 The Process of Transformation and Letting Go

39:35 The Co-Creation Framework for Fulfilling Relationships

41:05 Taking Personal Agency in Unaligned Situations

45:46 Aligning Visions and Pace of Execution in Relationships

49:22 Navigating Different Rates of Evolution

52:28 The Power of Acceptance

56:10 Energetic Abundance and Supporting Others' Evolution

--

Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!)

https://tinyurl.com/Spiralinghighercommunity

Heal your money wound & manifest abundance in Sam's newest course 'Abundantly Ever After:'

https://simplifyingsam.kartra.com/page/AbundantlyEverAfter

--

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:

https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coaching

Apply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:

https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbte

Follow Spiraling Higher:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigher

Follow Simplifying Sam:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.sam

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.sam

Follow Gina:

Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourne

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabourne

For all inquiries, email us at:

[email protected]

--

Follow Flynn on IG:

https://www.instagram.com/flynnskidmore/?hl=en

Spiralers, we're calling you (and ourselves!) out. It's time to become aware of and heal our attachment to the far too common "ALL OR NOTHING" paradigm - where you are either going full throttle, pedal to the metal, or completely exhausted and avoiding things all together.

Listen to this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/JiOsgMl1FYM

For years we both struggled with the constant physical and emotional pendulum swing from wild action to inaction, unable to find a healthy and sustainable balance from which to pursue our desires. We were always either going for it and simulatenously sacrificing our own needs or we were too afraid or burnt out to take any action at all.

If this sounds familiar to you, you are likely stuck in BLACK + WHITE thinking. It's the tendency to see, and act, in extremes. Either it's all good or ALL bad. Although this type of thinking might feel normal to you, as it once did for us, it's actually a cognitive distortion.

If you were to read about it on Wikipedia, it would say that binary thinking, black-and-white thinking, all-or-nothing thinking, or thinking in extremes is "the failure in a person's thinking to bring together the dichotomy of both perceived positive and negative qualities of something into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism wherein the individual tends to think in extremes with no middle ground."

Here on the Spiraling Higher Podcast, we have been abundantly clear that our BELIEFS shape our reality. So, consider this...if our beliefs are distorted to see things in an all or nothing fashion...how will that shape our experience of life? In our experience, it led to extreme highs and sometime even lower lows. We realized eventually that our thinking was playing a role in the creation of our inner roller coaster and we feel so honored to be sharing those lessons today from the heart.

Highlights:

-Discover how perfectionism seeps into our daily routines, amplifying feelings of guilt and pressure.

-Uncover the constraints of all-or-nothing thinking and how it limits our personal freedom.

-Explore the empowering journey of challenging societal norms as a route to genuine self-acceptance.

-Hear the truth behind New Year's resolutions and the reasons they fall flat.

-Learn the vital balance between flexibility and rigidity in goal-setting for healthier well-being.

-Understand how perfectionistic beliefs can cast a shadow over parenting, affecting both parents and children.

-Explore the powerful connection between self-punishment and all-or-nothing thinking, and discover effective strategies to break free from this cycle for a healthier, more balanced mindset.

Timestamps:

03:12 Breaking Free from Perfectionism

06:04 The All or Nothing Mentality

08:50 Exploring The Relationship to Food + Connection to All or Nothing

12:03 The Journey to Intuitive Living

14:56 Challenging Self-Worth and Value

18:08 The Impact of New Year's Resolutions

21:02 Redefining Success and Acceptance

24:12 Parenting and Perfectionism

31:06 Understanding All or Nothing Thinking

36:03 The Impact of Self-Punishment

41:51 Challenging Perfectionism and Self-Acceptance

49:08 The Illusion of Forever

56:25 Embracing the Journey of Self-Discovery

Spiralers, get ready for one of the BEST conversations we've been lucky to host in our studio with THE Vanessa Lau! You might recognize her from her popular YouTube channel and social media platforms for previously sharing viral IG content creation tips to over 800k people! She was the pinnacle of a young successful entrepreneur having been a barista in 2018 before finally posting her first YouTube video, which quickly grew to almost a million followers and took her from 0 to 7 million in just a few short years.

Listen to this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/IHJUgze4isk

"Vanessa Lau is an online entrepreneur, social media educator, and content marketing expert. She is one of the youngest entrepreneurs to have had such an impact on social media that millions of people know her. She teaches new entrepreneurs how to build their influence and scale their businesses using the power of social media."

Before last year, that's how Vanessa identified herself. It was the persona she showed the world and hid behind to continue building her brand her business. But in 2023, Vanessa shut down the business, went dark on social media and had no idea when or if she would ever return. Both Sam and Gina, along with her growing audience of hundreds of thousands of people, wondered with wild curiosity what had happened!? Where did she go and is she coming back?!

Spiralers, she is BACK and today she puts all of the rumors to rest and shares her story - an incredible story of healing and self trust.

Since her return, she has completely shifted her entire business model and perspectives on social media. Now, she's here to share how to feel good, live more, and earn enough.

This conversation shows a very honest, authentic Vanessa as she vulnerably shares her journey of placing her worth in work to ultimately burning out and having to heal from within. From her unexpected sabbatical, she gained life lessons that now feels called to share with her online community in a whole new way and we can't wait to hear what you think of this conversation.

Highlights:

-Why Vanessa LEFT social media and her business at her peak (and why she CAME BACK!)

-The pressures of social media fame + How it impacts sustainability and business

-How tasting "success" can lead to a disconnect between personal values & business goals

-People-pleasing can create unsustainable business practices

-Becoming aware of how ego can drive entrepreneurs to create unsustainable business models (and how to lead in business instead!)

-Soft girl era vs. Girl boss era (Hint: BOTH are flawed!)

-The transition from living for perfectionism and instead living from authenticity

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Vanessa's Journey

03:12 The Speculation and Impact of Vanessa's Break

06:02 The Nature of Social Media Relationships

09:01 Burnout and the Unsustainable Hustle

11:57 The Rise to Fame and Its Consequences

18:06 The Breakdown and Decision to Leave

27:14 The Height of Success and Its Illusions

32:45 The Ego Death and Self-Discovery

39:03 The Reality of Business Pressure

44:51 The Return To Social Media

01:07:32 Facing the Discomfort of Healing

01:10:23 Authenticity and Vulnerability in Public Life

01:12:50 The Shift from Perfectionism to Authenticity

01:21:19 Rebuilding After Burnout

01:24:40 The Pressure of Public Perception

01:27:30 Owning Your Narrative

01:36:11 The Inner Child and Healing

Are you actually lazy or just really tired? What's the difference? We get this question A LOT from our coaching clients so we wanted to dedicate an entire episode to the careful discernment between rest and avoidance. As our clients are often coming off of the adrenaline-powered hustle and fear-driven pursuit of "success," they find themselves VERY tired.

Watch this episode on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/Fyd1QacB2yU

Taking breaks, slowing down, and adjusting their expectations can be an awkward, even stressful, process coming from such a high-paced background that was tied to their sense of self-worth. Taking these necessary adjustments can bring up thoughts and feelings like...

"Am I being lazy?"

"Should I be working harder?"

"Am I being too easy on myself?"

"What is going to happen to me if I slow down?"

"What if I become a couch potato??!"

These fears are the ego's work - an attempt to keep you in fear and scarcity. However, we do see people who use rest as an excuse far past the point of revival and rejuvenation. How do you know you're one of them? In this episode, we share our honest opinions and hope it helps you discern the difference between rest and avoidance!

--

https://shorturl.at/xx1gb

Best-selling author, speaker, and mental health advocate Kristina Kuzmic has made herself a household name, speaking to mothers from the trenches of parenthood and women who struggle to be authentic via her viral videos and refreshingly honest books. In the Spiraling Higher Studio, she shares her inspiring journey from poverty and divorce to becoming a successful content creator and author with her message of self-acceptance, resilience, and imperfection.

Listen to this episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/C2yJQDMdxoc

Kristina's life story is truly the stuff of great books - no wonder she is a writer! In this conversation, she shares how she went from broke and defeated to unshakeably grounded and grateful, eventually winning the reality TV competition “Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” despite having just become a suddenly single mother to two kids and eventually learning her oldest son was struggling with serious mental illness.

Since working with Oprah, Kristina has branched out on her own, creating videos about juggling all of life’s challenges, and encouraging her audience to prioritize their mental health. She has quickly become a viral sensation with 3 million Facebook followers and over 750,000 Instagram followers.

Today, she uses her platform to to encourage people to be REAL. Kristina is the absolute embodiment of AUTHENTIC and is a no BS, honest storyteller who embraces her imperfections and listens to the voice within rather than the noise from the naysayers. We were in absolute awe of her story and feel that this episode truly embodied every single one of our values here at Spiraling Higher, especially curiosity and connection.

After listening to this episode, you will feel empowered and more courageous to embody the truth of who you are and live boldly as your soul desires!

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:02 From Poverty to Success

06:27 Embracing Authenticity

11:37 The Importance of Being Authentic

19:03 Overcoming the Fear of Being Authentic

24:48 Self-Security and Abundance

26:32 From Assumption to Curiosity

29:01 Detaching Value From Child's Experience + Illness

30:52 Being a Steady Support System For Yourself

37:43 Saying 'No, Thank You' to Negative Thoughts

50:27 Embracing Self-Acceptance and Self-Compassion

54:16 Letting Go of Control and Embracing the Messy Journey

--

https://shorturl.at/xx1gb

Follow Kristina:

https://www.instagram.com/kristinakuzmic/?hl=en

Get her newest book "I Can Fix This (And Other Lies I Told Myself While Parenting My Struggling Child):

https://amzn.to/3SM9gsW

Her other book "Hold On, But Don't Hold Still: Hope and Humor from My Seriously Flawed Life":

https://amzn.to/46X4Khb