The Optimized Life

36: Creating Clarity & Structure Around Money

In episode 36, we’re diving into part 2 of our 3-part series all about money.

In part 1, we talked about your relationship with money and why money triggers you.

In this episode, we’re focused on getting clear with your money right now. We’re talking about cash flow, what lights you up, and how you can start having a conscious spending life.

Listen in as we talk about:

5:56 How to define your core values (and why it matters)

11:14 Clarifying your ideal life (and how to have fun in the process)

17:09 The areas of our lives where we don’t budget (and how you can do this, too)

23:53 The essential practical step you must take in order to improve your relationship with money (this is where most people get stuck)

30:50 Our favorite tools for organizing and managing our money

43:03 Determining your own freedom number

Ready to learn about how to spend money to support your dream life right now? Take a little time and listen to episode 36 of The Optimized Life Podcast!

Resources mentioned:

Episode 35: Why You Avoid Money

Quicken / QuickBooks 

The Optimized Life Toolkit

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

35: Why You Avoid Money

How do you feel about money?

Does that question trigger you? If so, you’re not alone.

The truth is that no matter how we were raised, we all have stories about money that impact how we relate to money today. And for a lot of us, these beliefs and stories are holding us back from living the lives we want to live.

So in episode 35 of The Optimized Life Podcast, we’re kicking off a 3-part series all about money.

Listen in as we talk about:

4:33 No one taught us about managing money

9:17 How we’re taught scarcity around money

16:03 Looking back at the stories we were taught about money (and how they still impact us today)

25:01 Allowing your relationship with money to evolve without comparison

31:48 How to get clear on what matters to you (and what lights you up) when it comes to spending money

42:55 Changing the paradigm and spending money to live your best life now

Resources mentioned:

Core Values List

Quicken

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

34: Working with Your Body's Natural Rhythms

You see posts on social media and you feel like everyone else has figured out this adulting thing and they’re sticking to a schedule, a routine, like a boss; and you’re a big hot mess with no structure, no schedule. Or maybe you are sticking to a schedule, but you’re exhausted and having to rely on caffeine or worse to get you through the slumps in your day. Can you relate?

Most of us have felt this way and have assumed that the problem is us -- we’re just not disciplined enough . But in this episode of the Optimized Life podcast, we’re going to challenge that assumption.

You see, the problem is not your ability to stick to a schedule or a routine, but rather, your ability to identify your body’s natural rhythms and develop a routine that optimizes those rhythms. And we can help.

In this episode, we’re going to tell you about our own experiences tuning into our bodys’ rhythms and the huge changes, which we previously thought were impossible, that we’ve experienced as a result.

We’re going deep with this topic and giving you the tools that you need to identify your own rhythms so you can work with them (instead of against them!) for optimal productivity.

Listen in as we talk about:

03:56 The external sources that have overridden our bodies’ natural states and rhythms

20:09 The significance of the circadian rhythm

23:46 The dangers of overriding our natural rhythms

25:02 The four phases of the menstrual cycle, which may be impacting your daily life in ways you don’t realize.

32:29 Chronotypes and how working with your chronotype can optimize your schedule or routine

Resources mentioned:

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

33: The Gut Brain Axis, Weight Loss & Happiness

Have you ever felt like you are doing all the things and still feel stuck? If so, this episode is for you.

On this episode of the Optimized Life podcast, we are joined by world renowned Psycho-Nutritionist and award-winning product formulator of nutraceuticals, Dr. Shawn Talbott.

Listen in as we dive into all thing gut-brain axis and how it impacts weight loss and happiness.

In addition to being the Chief Science Officer at Amare Global, the mental wellness company, he is the author of 14 books, including the new book - Mental Fitness: Maximizing Mood, Motivation, & Mental Wellness by Optimizing the Brain-Body-Biome.

What I appreciate most about Dr. Shawn is the functional approach he takes to health by combining physiology, biochemistry, and psychology to help people improve their mental wellness and physical performance.

His ability to take complex scientific topics and break them down in a way that’s fun, digestible and actionable is one of his greatest gifts.

Dr Shawn will be our special guest speaker at our upcoming Keep Austin Happy event on Saturday 3/12 from 10am-1pm at dadaLab in East Austin.

If you are in the Austin or surrounding central Texas areas join us for a morning of empowerment, community and action.

Tickets can be found here: www.keepatxhappy.com

Listen in as we talk about:

5:10 The question Dr Shawn asked Jess when they 1stmet that changed everything: Does it feel like your brain is low on cell phone bars? The gut-brain axis explained.

13:40 Applying modern scientific techniques to traditional medicine systems like Ayurvedic, ancient Chinese medicine and Kampo to create natural interventions

18:50 How tuning and reprograming your gut microbiome creates a dynamic, internal pharmacy

22:10 A new approach to weight-loss through the gut – getting in tune with your body’s appetite signaling

31:00 When you are doing all the things and still feel stuck

37:38 Why mental wellness is the place to be right now and how you can be part of it

How you can be part of the KEEPY AUSTIN HAPPY movement:

If you are in the Austin or surrounding areas, we invite you join us at our very 1st Keep Austin Happy event on Saturday, March 12th 2022 from 10am-1pm.

Tickets can be found here: http://www.keepatxhappy.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

32: How to Feel Safe While Expanding into Something You’ve Never Been Before

What if paying attention to your gut microbiome could allow you to feel safe in the uncertainty while you expand into something you’ve never been before?

Introducing KEEP AUSTIN HAPPY!

A movement to feel good, more often and the ripple effect that could create in your life and in your family system.

Over the past two years, Covid and long Covid has profoundly impacted the way we function in our bodies, live, work and relate to one another.

Coupled with the rapidly shifting landscape of our world it created so much uncertainty.

Uncertainty around health, family routines, money, and the health of the planet.

What’s mind-blowing is that when given the choice ... people will always choose unhappiness over uncertainty ... think about that?

On this episode of the Optimized Life Podcast, we take a deep dive into the disorganized pattern Covid has created through that uncertainly and what these last two years have really shown us as a world and in our individual life.

And how you decide what feels safe and what doesn’t feel safe thought the uncertainty

What it would feel like for you to be able trust yourself again, to feel safety from within and to be able to come back home to your body?

Listen in as we talk about:

1:15  How Covid has created the dysregulation we are seeing throughout every aspect of our life and the Keep Austin Happy Movement this is coming to Texas to help get us re-regulated

6:08  How uncertainty can keeps us stuck

12:32 How to create regulation in the nervous system

16:51 How the gut-brain axis impacts health, happiness and our ability to relate to the world

22:38 An introduction to the Keep Austin Happy Movement and how you can be part of it

How you can be part of the KEEPY AUSTIN HAPPY movement:

If you are in the Austin or surrounding areas, we invite you join us at our very 1st Keep Austin Happy event on Saturday, March 12th 2022 from 10am-1pm.

To register go here: http://www.keepatxhappy.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

31: How to Feel Anger From a Place of Groundedness

In each of our lives, there will inevitably be someone or something that triggers in you either a burning rage or intense fear.

We know we should get it out of our nervous system and let it go, but that’s easier said than done. How can we so easily let someone off the hook after they cut us off in traffic? How can we not get angry when reading the heartbreaking news we wake up to everyday? Regardless of the reason, the fallout can often be damaging.

Fear and anger arise from a ‘perceived’ threat creating a fight-or-flight response in our body. While it’s not easy to distinguish in the moment whether it’s a genuine threat or a distorted thought, slowing down to do so helps create space for us to respond appropriately to these highly charged emotions.

In this episode of The Optimized Life Podcast, Jess and Amy share some of their personal experiences of dealing with emotions of fear and anger. 

They even outline actionable steps that they find helpful to regulate their emotions and connect with themselves.

Listen in as we talk about:

10:47 Amy explains how she creates awareness around her anger in order to feel it safely.

12:37 Jess relates her anger to excavating honesty and allowing it to exist instead of turning to aggression or numbing mechanisms

21:55 How anger can promote urgency, cooperation and collectivism

26:43 Jess goes deep into her personal experience with characterizing anger as an unmet need and how she’s come to express it in a healthy way in her marriage

34:02 Amy defines the four types of attachment and how most of us typically respond to anger brought forth by these patterns

45:17 Jess and Amy break down the actionable steps they are each doing to create space around anger in order to feel it from a grounded place

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

30: Consistency & How to Create More of It

Admit it. We all want consistency in our lives. In our eating habits, workout schedule, morning routine, cashflow, and even in our relationships…we crave consistency.

In an effort to better improve in this area, we buy all the best motivational books, watch the all recommended TedTalks and we hear the same message played back to us, “Consistency is the key to success.”

While that may be true…it begs the question how do we integrate consistency into our lives in a sustainable way? How do we stay consistent while still consciously and mindfully moving forward in our lives?

Nobody taught us that consistency involves priming our nervous systems with the energy to make those daily choices.

Nobody taught us that it’s safe to choose a frequency of consistency that works best for us and to not feel guilty about it.

Nobody taught us that wherever we are in our consistency process, we are worth celebrating and each of us should be…right now!

In Episode 31 of The Optimized Life Podcast, Jess and Amy get right down to the hard-to-grapple-with truth of what consistency is, what it’s not, how to maintain it, and all the ins and outs we were never taught about it.

Listen in as we talk about:

07:05 Jess brings clarity to how nervous system regulation and attachment patterns are the underlying key to being consistent

10:57 Amy uncovers how the role of technology and instant gratification relates to the way we view consistency for ourselves.

12:55 Learning to choose whatever form of consistency that works for you.

19:40 We learn that consistency is two steps forward, one step back with occasional doubt creeping in.

22:06 Practicing celebration to expand your nervous system.

27:05 Amy divulges how we can bring compassion to ourselves as we experience signs of dysregulation.

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

29: Ayahuasca and What Comes Next

Ayahuasca is way more than just “showing up and throwing up.” It helps your brain to rewire neuropathways, it allows your body to purge things that are no longer serving you, it heals the body and boosts mental well-being. With proper integration post ceremony, it has the power to create profound, positive changes in your life.

Fresh off of a 3 day Ayahuasca ceremony, Jess reflects on back on her most recent medicine journey, the positive changes she is experiencing post ceremony and what comes next ... which is where the "integration" comes in. 

Integration is such an important part of the healing journey as it allows you process and make sense of everything that came up during ceremony.

But what exactly does integration look like?

In Episode 30 of The Optimized Life Podcast, Jess and Amy take you through the sweeping narrative of experiencing Ayahuasca. They recount each day’s moments with a specific visualization of the events as they happened, the ups, downs and how each of their experiences are still plugging into their daily lives, guiding them.

We’re inviting you into an extremely informative and interesting conversation between friends. As you listen, we invite you to purposefully reflect on your own experiences and feelings.

Listen in as we talk about:

3:30 Jess’ experience of exploring different groundbreaking modalities, and turning to Ayahuasca to transform her whole family system

14:24 What psychedelics do to our brain to create new neural pathways

20:08 Approaching integration that’s sourced from the inside and a connection with oneself

36:15 Amy reflects on awakening and releasing trauma by holding space for relief

39:23 The role of Ayahuasca in connecting us back to the natural world

42:06 Jess and Amy share the energy shifts they went through in their life after experiencing Ayahuasca

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

28: Feeling Through Love and Loss

Today Jess and Amy are sharing their very own experiences of grief, loss and also the profound joy that comes with the celebration of life.

Death and unconditional love are entirely interdependent. You can't have one without the other.

Our nervous systems have evolved in a way to protect us and keep us safe, and that includes resistance to change. So the big question is, how do we open ourselves up to that inevitable change that we have no control over?

Sometimes we need to just sit in the discomfort in our own bodies and hold the space. And just that experience in itself will teach you so much.

We're going to get really personal here, so however you need to take care of yourself please do it. Get your weighted blanket out, a nice warm cup in your hands, take a few grounding breaths, whatever feels good to you. We look forward to sharing this with you.

Listen in as we talk about:

07:40 Amy explains how our nervous system is designed in a way that it does not want us to feel grief.

9:55 Jess recounts her first silent meditation retreat experience where she learned the meaning of two powerful words; “equanimity” and “anicha”.

12:13 How we have all experienced trauma on a global level through the pandemic. collectively feel that there's a lot of grief, a lot of trauma, a lot of mourning in that.

12:36 Jess shares her very personal experience of recently losing a beloved pet and how her conscious lifestyle allowed her to feel into that without needing to find a numbing mechanism.

17:17 Amy dives into why one of the big things that we're not taught as children is to allow feelings of grief to happen.

18:29 Amy shares on a micro level how the avoidance of feeling impacted her relationships for most of her life.

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife

Episode 27: What Stops You from Dreaming Big

There's something that's happening right now called the great resignation. People are looking for more fulfillment, more flexibility in their lives. They are starting to dream bigger.

Bigger dreams lead to bigger action, right? And bigger action leads to being able to have more financial resources and more financial resources leads to being able to make a greater impact. That impact leads to that bigger sense of purpose and more happiness.

Did you know that our dreams really stem from what makes us feel alive? Our dreams are fueled by the gifts that we know are inside of us, but have yet to bring forward to the world.

With that, there are so many things that get in the way of people being able to think bigger and to dream bigger.

In this episode Jess and Amy discuss all the obstacles and hurdles we face that stop us from dreaming big every single day.

Listen in as we talk about:

4:53 The number one thing that stops us from dreaming big.

11:53 How our dreams come to us when we are little when we still have the freedom and ability to dream big.

14:48 Amy recounts how she was able to get clear about how to bring her dream to life and define her mission to serve people by creating a safe space to help people communicate better.

16:10 Jess shares how your family’s conditioning and society's conditioning runs deep in impacting your ability to dream big.

22:32 We get to hear how Jess was able to leave her corporate job and follow the freedom and flexibility to create the life she envisioned.

33:36 Learning how to regulate your nervous system is one of the most important things you can do in order to be successful.

———Download The Optimized Life Toolkit———

Our TOP 5 HACKS that will FINALLY Get You "IN THE ZONE" All Day everyday: https://www.jessjanda.com/theoptimizedlife

———Where to Find Amy & Jess———

🙋‍ Amy Guerrero:   http://www.amyguerrero.com

🙋‍ Jess Janda:   http://www.jessjanda.com

———Connect With Amy & Jess———

✨ Join The Optimized Life Podcast Community:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/optimizedlife