February 5, 2025 • 23 mins
As promised last week, I’m starting a miniseries on my lessons learned from my trip to Cuba! This week, I’m sharing why I decided to go and how I overcame objections like:
- My husband not approving.
- That it’s too much money.
- Fears around safety.
Links / people mentioned:
- Dawn Mullarney / The Unique Connector: https://www.uniqueconnector.com/
- Laura Ericson, Impact Travel: https://www.lauraericson.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm so excited to be back podcasting that I am recording this on the heels of my intro
(00:05):
podcast, even though you won't hear it for a week.
But I know that as I'm going through my head and I'm telling the stories of, oh, I want
to say this and make sure I say that, I should just turn on the mic and just start talking.
So that's what I'm doing.
As I alluded to last week, I want to spend at least a couple of weeks unpacking my trip
to Cuba because for me, I mean, anything in the world right now is a spiritual experience
(00:28):
because that's how I've learned to look at the world and design my life.
But this in particular was a big spiritual experience for me in terms of overcoming fears
and managing my energy and learning how to create the world that I and just like create
myself and shift myself for what I want to experience.
So I want to share some of those learnings with you.
(00:52):
And what I want to talk about today was the decision to go to Cuba because it was a fairly
quick decision for me.
I did hesitate.
I did a little bit of research up front, but I heard a lot of objections from a lot of
people who were thinking about going but didn't ultimately sign up.
And so I want to talk about how I worked myself through those objections for whatever help
(01:14):
it might be for you.
So initially Cuba, this trip was created by my friend Don who met Laura.
Laura Erickson is the one who does the tours.
She has all these amazing vacations that she sets up and her goal is impact travel.
And so not just going to stay in these amazing five star resorts and experience luxury travel,
(01:38):
but really to go and to immerse yourself into the culture and learn about the people.
And so Don met Laura and Don, she's the unique connector, right?
And so she is always thinking about unique ways to bring people together.
And so somehow her head went to let's do a trip.
And long story short, she went through the different country ideas and decided on Cuba
(01:58):
based on proximity to where we were based on costs.
So sometime early 2024 and springtime, she announced a trip to Cuba.
I think it was March or April when I first learned about it.
And Cuba is a place I've always been curious about.
And it's one of those that I can't quite explain my curiosity, but it's because I know spirituality
(02:21):
and like spiritual intuition, it doesn't always have an explanation.
And so I remember years ago when Cuba was opened up for travel from the United States.
And I remember hearing like Jay-Z and Beyonce went to Cuba.
And for some reason that stuck with me.
And I was like, I want to go someday.
And that was it.
I want to go someday.
(02:42):
So when this opportunity came up, I was really intrigued.
And so I learned more about it.
And of course, safety is always top of mind based on what we're told about the country
of Cuba, which now that I know, when you learn about the government, that's what we're hearing
about, but it's totally different than the people.
And so I'll talk a little bit about safety later on.
(03:03):
But ultimately, when I looked at the dates, I saw that it was going to be over my 40th
birthday, which also felt very divinely orchestrated.
Although I would have gone had it not been over my 40th birthday too.
That wasn't a deciding factor for me.
It felt more like a once in a lifetime opportunity than it did needing to happen on my birthday.
But for me, that was just like the cherry on top.
(03:24):
They're like, like, this will be an amazing way to celebrate your birthday.
And so I decided to go after learning more about it, hearing Laura gave a talk on just
how safe it is and what the trip would entail.
I decided to go.
So I signed up against my husband's wishes.
So this is one objection that we heard and I heard from some women who were kind of talking
(03:48):
about it with their husbands and their husbands weren't really sure.
My husband wasn't really sure, although he watches too much news and he feels like everyone
is out to get Americans.
And I watch people that travel and I know like they always come back, things are fine.
And so I know there's different ways to look at the world.
And there was, I did not see any, any avenue where he was going to bless me going on this
(04:14):
trip because one, it meant him being alone with the kids for a week.
And two, his fear around traveling to other countries in general and potentially like
losing his wife.
I knew there was not a way that he was going to bless me and bless this opportunity.
And so I decided to go regardless of that because what came through my head in that
(04:35):
moment was he's not going to be the one on my deathbed looking back on my life, looking
at all the opportunities and other things I did or didn't do.
Like that's not on him, that's on me.
And so I need to be the one to live the life I want to live regardless of his blessing.
And yes, it would have been different had it actually been like an unsafe situation or
(04:56):
anything like that, but nothing I had learned about the country made me feel like it was
going to be an unsafe trip.
So I decided to go.
I signed up.
So I've been waiting for this for, I don't know, seven, eight, eight months or so.
This has been in the forefront or maybe the back front, which isn't really, so the back
(05:16):
part of my brain.
And it's amazing that it actually happened because I've been waiting for so long.
And when I signed up, it was so far away.
And so when it was a month away, I was like, holy shit, it's actually coming up to this.
And so that was one objection that I overcame was what would my husband think?
And then what would happen to the kids?
(05:38):
So I've noticed this fear around leaving my kids and being separate from my kids.
Like what if I don't come back, what will happen to them?
And so that's one of those fears that I just have to notice and work through and look at
all the evidence of all the other times that I've taken trips and I've come back and look
at all the other evidence of all the other parents that I know who have taken trips and
(06:01):
come back and just do it anyway.
Many of the fears that come up for me, I'm able to work through and kind of do the thing
without the fear there completely.
But this is one of those that I think is a mom is just always kind of there.
Like what happens if something happens to me?
And so that was one that again, I just knew was there.
(06:24):
And not because of this trip, but just in general, because it's good parenting last
year we went and got our estate planning done.
And so like it would have been easier had something happened to me.
Thankfully, it didn't.
But we made like backup plans were there if heaven forbid, I went and didn't come back
(06:44):
from Cuba.
And so the kids, that's always the biggest hesitation for me.
What about the kids?
And just knowing like they're going to survive, it's not going to be as good as mom when mom
is home.
Like I'm sorry, it's just not.
And I had a friend tell me the same thing when I was planning and going.
She's like, I always had fear leaving my kids too.
(07:06):
And you're going to have to come home and there's going to be cleanup to do, but it's
going to be okay.
So that was what I went into it with was it's going to be okay.
And they had a really hard week actually when we were in Cuba, it was below freezing.
It was like when chill enough that they canceled school.
(07:28):
So before I left, my husband was starting to get sick.
He had a lot going on at work.
Then my son had a fever when I was gone, like a really high one.
Then my daughter got a fever when I was gone.
And so it was not an easy week for them.
But also just knowing that this was that had nothing to do with me, that I couldn't have
planned that back in April when I said yes to this trip.
(07:52):
I am not holding any guilt around that because there's nothing different I could have done.
I prepared them the best I could.
It was just life showing up.
So let that be just a note too that as moms, we've been made to feel guilty about a lot
of things, especially when it comes to putting ourselves first.
(08:12):
And it would be very easy for me to feel guilty.
Like all you had a terrible week, I should have been there to help with that.
And yes, it would have been an easier week for everybody had I been there to help with
that.
But again, there's nothing I could have done differently.
It's not like everyone was starting to get sick and we looked at the weather report and
a week before I was like, all right, peace out.
Good luck.
(08:32):
I'm out of here.
Like that's not how it went down.
And so I'm choosing to not hold any guilt around the fact that they had a really hard
week that might sound bitchy.
But I have done this work long enough to know that where you carry guilt and shame and anything
like that, it just wears you down and it takes out your power.
And it's a block to your true essence and your true power.
(08:55):
And I don't want that.
I don't want to carry that around.
Another objection I heard from people was around money and the cost of the trip.
And it did end up being more costly overall than what I initially anticipated because
there was the cost of the trip up front, which got you most of your food, your transportation
and your housing.
And then there was airfare, which I was hoping would go down as gas prices went down, but
(09:18):
it did not go down.
It went up.
So finally I had to just bite the bullet and buy the plane ticket.
And then there was all the extra stuff we had to take.
So Cuba is a country where they don't really have drugstores.
They don't really have a place where you can go to coals or go to Target or go to Walgreens
and buy something if you forget it.
And so we had a lot more just in case stuff to buy medicines and creams and things.
(09:42):
We needed a special water bottle so we could drink the water without getting the poo-poo's.
Battery packs.
We got backup battery packs to charge our cell phones because they're notorious for
losing power, which actually we did go a couple days without power.
And so there was a lot more expenses and then we ended up taking about $1,000 in cash too
for tips and souvenirs and the other things that we came across.
(10:05):
So overall, I expected to spend money on this trip and I went into it with open eyes that
it was going to cost money.
But again, for me, you can't take money with you when you die.
And so I've started looking at things as if this feels like a truly soul aligned experience,
(10:28):
which I feel guided to do and guided to take, which I did, then the universe is going to
find a way to make money a non-issue for me.
And one of the blessings, and I understand my blessing when I say this, but early last
year in 2024, I received an inheritance from my aunt.
And so it was easy for me to pay for the trip because of that, regardless of how my business
(10:49):
was doing, I had that available to me.
And I know my mom told me after we got the inheritance and she was in her 70s when she
passed and she had lived post stroke for over 20 years.
And so life was kind of hard for her to move around.
But my mom told me, she never was married, but she had a lifelong partner that she always
(11:11):
wanted to go on a cruise and her partner never took her on a cruise.
And so I just think about her dying with that wish of wanting to go on a cruise.
And so it felt like in a way I was also honoring the gift that she gave me by using it to go
on this trip that I wanted to go on.
And so for me, had I not had that, my financial situation would have been a little bit different.
(11:37):
And I would have had to think a little bit harder about, is this the right way to spend
my money?
But again, I'm blessed with the idea and the understanding and the knowing that when you
do something that is aligned to your soul that is going to open you up and expand you,
the money always finds a way of coming back.
And that's been true for me.
The other ways that I've looked at this has been when I spend money on coaching and other
(12:00):
programs, sometimes really high dollar things, I always find a way to be okay.
Like I'm not going to lose my house, I'm not going to lose my car or anything.
So I'm not saying like if you truly have to choose between putting food on your table
and going on a trip that it's wise to go on a trip.
(12:21):
But I think many of us hold on tighter to money than we probably need to.
And I don't think I know this.
I know this because money has been really deeply put into our nervous system around
just how we interact with it, how we think about it.
Often people feel like they never have enough and they're always scrimping and saving right
(12:41):
even though their bank account shows otherwise.
It's because it has nothing to do with the money and has to do with your nervous system
and how you view the world around money.
And so that would be I guess my thoughts and my advice around that is how can you again
in a smart way not truly sacrificing your safety and your ability to thrive.
(13:03):
But if something feels truly, truly aligned to you, to your soul, it'll be expansive for
you.
Like the money will find a way of working itself out and you can't take the money with
you at the end of the day.
Like the experience is going to go so much deeper into your life than that money in your
bank account will.
So that was as I thought about money and again knowing my blessings and what I had received
(13:28):
as a gift at the beginning of last year, but I do believe that I received that in part
to allow me to continue to thrive and get to take these opportunities even as I was
building my business.
And so again, it all felt very divinely orchestrated for me.
The next thing that came up, which I heard a lot of people talk about too was safety.
(13:50):
And this was one of my concerns as well.
And one of my questions was around safety.
Is it safe to travel there?
And again, it's based on all the shit that we're taught and we're told about Cuba.
And when we were there, I think it was off the terror watch list for just a couple of
weeks.
I think Biden took it off right before he left office and then Trump put it back on.
(14:13):
And so there was a bit of a circle around that.
So there's this idea that it's an unsafe place to travel.
And perhaps there's pockets where that's true.
I don't have the government intel, right, that they have.
But what I guess I had none of that when I made the decision.
(14:35):
I know that now.
I now know that there wasn't a single time there where I felt unsafe.
And even one of the women who's traveled around the world, she said, I would, there were
times she would go for three, four, five mile runs sometimes at night in Havana.
She's like, never did I feel unsafe.
And I wouldn't do that in every country that I traveled to.
(14:55):
But I didn't know that when I signed up.
So I know that now.
But now when I signed up, what I can tell you was I did ask those questions and Laura
did have a very good response, which was, I can't guarantee your safety anywhere, right?
I can't guarantee your safety in downtown Milwaukee or in Chicago.
And she said it's actually more unsafe to travel to Cancun than it is to go to Cuba.
(15:15):
And how many people do we see go into Cancun?
And at some point in the next few months, she even posted, see, they're the top 50 or
the top 100.
The top 50 most unsafe cities in the world.
There wasn't a single one from Cuba on that list, but there were certainly plenty from
the United States and from other cities that are popular travel destinations.
And so practically, I made the decision based on the information that I had, which was that
(15:43):
there is no reason that we can think of where safety would be an issue.
And again, you can say that for anywhere you go, right?
You're always making decisions based on what you know and shit happens.
But that's how I made the decision at the time was believing like physically that physical
safety would not be an issue based on what we knew.
(16:05):
And I also prepared myself so we had travel insurance that we had to get, which was only
the minimum was to cover us for when we were there.
But I ended up upgrading to the bigger travel insurance, which was I could cancel for any
reason at any time.
Because again, that helped me like if for some reason, a safety issue does come up that
(16:26):
we aren't prepared for because we were going to be gone over the inauguration after the
election.
We hadn't had the election when I signed up.
I could cancel if I needed to.
And I also knew that Laura was going to be in Cuba for three weeks before our trip.
And so if there was something that she saw, she would be there and she would tell us and
(16:46):
she would give us a reason not to travel.
And so there were all these mechanisms in place for me that helped me overcome that
safety objection.
But then the other perspective that I took on this was I also given the work that I've
done, I also know our feeling of safety is more of an inside our body issue than it is
(17:11):
an outside our body issue.
And what do I mean by that?
I mean, there are so many people who walk around in their day to day and they don't
feel safety in their body because of all the trauma that their body holds.
So typically when we don't feel safe, it's not necessarily the outer circumstance that's
(17:33):
telling us, ooh, you shouldn't be here.
It's really the outer circumstance is triggering some old pattern in the body that's coming
up as like a resonant pattern.
And that's what we're feeling.
And that is what we're responding to thinking we're in a place where it's unsafe, but really
it's an old trauma pattern.
(17:53):
So let me give an example.
Last summer, there were a couple of times where before I would start work, I would drop
the kids off at camp and then I would go for a walk down a trail.
And there were a couple of times going down that trail and they were well traveled trails.
It was morning.
There were plenty of people on those trails.
They were between busy streets and so it's not like I was going back into the woods by
(18:14):
myself, but I would feel this fear around, oh, I'm a woman alone in the woods.
And what I noticed and a lot of people would say, ooh, it's unsafe for me to be here.
But for me, the way I interpreted that was that's just an old fear from wherever I don't
have to know where it comes from, where it could be something I heard from the collective
(18:37):
about someone getting attacked in the woods or it could be a generational past life experience
where someone was attacked.
They were female walking alone.
And so it wasn't that I was in an unsafe place where there were people hiding in the bushes
waiting to attack me.
It was based on the scenario, this feeling of unsafety was coming up because our unconscious
(18:58):
is always looking at our outer world, trying to find resonant energy patterns in our body
to warn us basically.
And so what I did in those situations, instead of removing myself from the trail, I would
breathe through them and allow that fear to be there, which is how you dissipate the fear
from your body when you allow it, when you breathe through it.
(19:22):
And so I know the belief that I hold anyway is that safety in our body has more to do
with how we manage the inner energy of our body and less to do with what's going on around
us.
And so I knew that I would be able to manage that in a way where I could walk through Cuba
(19:44):
and feel completely safe.
And I knew that when I made the decision to travel, and that ended up being my experience,
there was never one single scenario where I felt like I was going to be attacked or felt
like I was going down a dark alley or anything like that.
And again, I don't put myself purposefully in situations that would be suspicious, right?
(20:06):
I'm not walking alone at night down dark alleys.
But I know and I knew that for me, safety is something that we can control just like
anything else in the world.
We're always blaming outside circumstances for the way we feel when really it's the
feeling state that we're in control of.
And we can learn to manage the feeling state in such a way that you can walk through a
(20:30):
place feeling safety.
And as long as I've been consciously doing this work, which I started in about 2019,
2020 learning to manage my inner energy, I felt a lot of fear, a lot of fear has come
up.
But none of it has been because I've actually been in an unsafe situation where I needed
to get out.
(20:51):
There were no lions attacking me.
There were no people waiting around corners to attack me.
It's all been old gunk that's come up.
And so I really don't even know what it would be like to be in a truly unsafe situation.
I have a feeling it would feel different.
It would be more like a gut punch.
Like we got to get the hell out of here.
Then it does more of a, for me, the fear comes up as more of like a dust cloud or like a
(21:14):
wave in my body.
That's when I know for me it's old energy versus like actual information that I have
to get the hell out of there.
And so I went in it with the idea that I control my own safety.
My safety is not dependent on what goes on around me.
The other thing, which I'll just put out there as long as I'm putting it out there,
(21:37):
I joked with one person about this, but I believe it too.
I was like, if it's my soul's plan and path to die in Cuba, like that's what's going
to happen.
I also believe that no death is an accident, that maybe from our tiny human brain vantage
point, it seems like an accident.
People die too young or the circumstance around it, whatever is unfortunate.
(21:59):
But I believe that from our higher perspective, from our soul's perspective, that everything
is intentionally planned and programmed based on what is perfect for us and what is perfect
for our family.
And so I came to this early COVID when a lot of people were afraid of dying.
For me, that's one of the things that COVID spun up for me was this fear of dying.
(22:21):
And so I faced it and I said, okay, death, like let's come do away where I'm not walking
around every day in my life afraid of dying because that's not living.
And so that's the perspective that I held going to Cuba too was, you know what, if this
is how I'm supposed to go out, that's what's going to happen.
(22:42):
And for me, I choose to live my life from a place of expansion and possibility than
I do from fear.
So those are the things that went into me making the decision to go to Cuba.
Next week I want to talk more about setting intentions on what I wanted to experience
in Cuba because I did that very differently than I've ever done before too.
(23:03):
And I think that will be really informative for all of you.
So come back next week if you want to hear all about that.
I'm so excited to be back podcasting that I am recording this on the heels of my intro
(00:05):
podcast, even though you won't hear it for a week.
But I know that as I'm going through my head and I'm telling the stories of, oh, I want
to say this and make sure I say that, I should just turn on the mic and just start talking.
So that's what I'm doing.
As I alluded to last week, I want to spend at least a couple of weeks unpacking my trip
to Cuba because for me, I mean, anything in the world right now is a spiritual experience
(00:28):
because that's how I've learned to look at the world and design my life.
But this in particular was a big spiritual experience for me in terms of overcoming fears
and managing my energy and learning how to create the world that I and just like create
myself and shift myself for what I want to experience.
So I want to share some of those learnings with you.
(00:52):
And what I want to talk about today was the decision to go to Cuba because it was a fairly
quick decision for me.
I did hesitate.
I did a little bit of research up front, but I heard a lot of objections from a lot of
people who were thinking about going but didn't ultimately sign up.
And so I want to talk about how I worked myself through those objections for whatever help
(01:14):
it might be for you.
So initially Cuba, this trip was created by my friend Don who met Laura.
Laura Erickson is the one who does the tours.
She has all these amazing vacations that she sets up and her goal is impact travel.
And so not just going to stay in these amazing five star resorts and experience luxury travel,
(01:38):
but really to go and to immerse yourself into the culture and learn about the people.
And so Don met Laura and Don, she's the unique connector, right?
And so she is always thinking about unique ways to bring people together.
And so somehow her head went to let's do a trip.
And long story short, she went through the different country ideas and decided on Cuba
(01:58):
based on proximity to where we were based on costs.
So sometime early 2024 and springtime, she announced a trip to Cuba.
I think it was March or April when I first learned about it.
And Cuba is a place I've always been curious about.
And it's one of those that I can't quite explain my curiosity, but it's because I know spirituality
(02:21):
and like spiritual intuition, it doesn't always have an explanation.
And so I remember years ago when Cuba was opened up for travel from the United States.
And I remember hearing like Jay-Z and Beyonce went to Cuba.
And for some reason that stuck with me.
And I was like, I want to go someday.
And that was it.
I want to go someday.
(02:42):
So when this opportunity came up, I was really intrigued.
And so I learned more about it.
And of course, safety is always top of mind based on what we're told about the country
of Cuba, which now that I know, when you learn about the government, that's what we're hearing
about, but it's totally different than the people.
And so I'll talk a little bit about safety later on.
(03:03):
But ultimately, when I looked at the dates, I saw that it was going to be over my 40th
birthday, which also felt very divinely orchestrated.
Although I would have gone had it not been over my 40th birthday too.
That wasn't a deciding factor for me.
It felt more like a once in a lifetime opportunity than it did needing to happen on my birthday.
But for me, that was just like the cherry on top.
(03:24):
They're like, like, this will be an amazing way to celebrate your birthday.
And so I decided to go after learning more about it, hearing Laura gave a talk on just
how safe it is and what the trip would entail.
I decided to go.
So I signed up against my husband's wishes.
So this is one objection that we heard and I heard from some women who were kind of talking
(03:48):
about it with their husbands and their husbands weren't really sure.
My husband wasn't really sure, although he watches too much news and he feels like everyone
is out to get Americans.
And I watch people that travel and I know like they always come back, things are fine.
And so I know there's different ways to look at the world.
And there was, I did not see any, any avenue where he was going to bless me going on this
(04:14):
trip because one, it meant him being alone with the kids for a week.
And two, his fear around traveling to other countries in general and potentially like
losing his wife.
I knew there was not a way that he was going to bless me and bless this opportunity.
And so I decided to go regardless of that because what came through my head in that
(04:35):
moment was he's not going to be the one on my deathbed looking back on my life, looking
at all the opportunities and other things I did or didn't do.
Like that's not on him, that's on me.
And so I need to be the one to live the life I want to live regardless of his blessing.
And yes, it would have been different had it actually been like an unsafe situation or
(04:56):
anything like that, but nothing I had learned about the country made me feel like it was
going to be an unsafe trip.
So I decided to go.
I signed up.
So I've been waiting for this for, I don't know, seven, eight, eight months or so.
This has been in the forefront or maybe the back front, which isn't really, so the back
(05:16):
part of my brain.
And it's amazing that it actually happened because I've been waiting for so long.
And when I signed up, it was so far away.
And so when it was a month away, I was like, holy shit, it's actually coming up to this.
And so that was one objection that I overcame was what would my husband think?
And then what would happen to the kids?
(05:38):
So I've noticed this fear around leaving my kids and being separate from my kids.
Like what if I don't come back, what will happen to them?
And so that's one of those fears that I just have to notice and work through and look at
all the evidence of all the other times that I've taken trips and I've come back and look
at all the other evidence of all the other parents that I know who have taken trips and
(06:01):
come back and just do it anyway.
Many of the fears that come up for me, I'm able to work through and kind of do the thing
without the fear there completely.
But this is one of those that I think is a mom is just always kind of there.
Like what happens if something happens to me?
And so that was one that again, I just knew was there.
(06:24):
And not because of this trip, but just in general, because it's good parenting last
year we went and got our estate planning done.
And so like it would have been easier had something happened to me.
Thankfully, it didn't.
But we made like backup plans were there if heaven forbid, I went and didn't come back
(06:44):
from Cuba.
And so the kids, that's always the biggest hesitation for me.
What about the kids?
And just knowing like they're going to survive, it's not going to be as good as mom when mom
is home.
Like I'm sorry, it's just not.
And I had a friend tell me the same thing when I was planning and going.
She's like, I always had fear leaving my kids too.
(07:06):
And you're going to have to come home and there's going to be cleanup to do, but it's
going to be okay.
So that was what I went into it with was it's going to be okay.
And they had a really hard week actually when we were in Cuba, it was below freezing.
It was like when chill enough that they canceled school.
(07:28):
So before I left, my husband was starting to get sick.
He had a lot going on at work.
Then my son had a fever when I was gone, like a really high one.
Then my daughter got a fever when I was gone.
And so it was not an easy week for them.
But also just knowing that this was that had nothing to do with me, that I couldn't have
planned that back in April when I said yes to this trip.
(07:52):
I am not holding any guilt around that because there's nothing different I could have done.
I prepared them the best I could.
It was just life showing up.
So let that be just a note too that as moms, we've been made to feel guilty about a lot
of things, especially when it comes to putting ourselves first.
(08:12):
And it would be very easy for me to feel guilty.
Like all you had a terrible week, I should have been there to help with that.
And yes, it would have been an easier week for everybody had I been there to help with
that.
But again, there's nothing I could have done differently.
It's not like everyone was starting to get sick and we looked at the weather report and
a week before I was like, all right, peace out.
Good luck.
(08:32):
I'm out of here.
Like that's not how it went down.
And so I'm choosing to not hold any guilt around the fact that they had a really hard
week that might sound bitchy.
But I have done this work long enough to know that where you carry guilt and shame and anything
like that, it just wears you down and it takes out your power.
And it's a block to your true essence and your true power.
(08:55):
And I don't want that.
I don't want to carry that around.
Another objection I heard from people was around money and the cost of the trip.
And it did end up being more costly overall than what I initially anticipated because
there was the cost of the trip up front, which got you most of your food, your transportation
and your housing.
And then there was airfare, which I was hoping would go down as gas prices went down, but
(09:18):
it did not go down.
It went up.
So finally I had to just bite the bullet and buy the plane ticket.
And then there was all the extra stuff we had to take.
So Cuba is a country where they don't really have drugstores.
They don't really have a place where you can go to coals or go to Target or go to Walgreens
and buy something if you forget it.
And so we had a lot more just in case stuff to buy medicines and creams and things.
(09:42):
We needed a special water bottle so we could drink the water without getting the poo-poo's.
Battery packs.
We got backup battery packs to charge our cell phones because they're notorious for
losing power, which actually we did go a couple days without power.
And so there was a lot more expenses and then we ended up taking about $1,000 in cash too
for tips and souvenirs and the other things that we came across.
(10:05):
So overall, I expected to spend money on this trip and I went into it with open eyes that
it was going to cost money.
But again, for me, you can't take money with you when you die.
And so I've started looking at things as if this feels like a truly soul aligned experience,
(10:28):
which I feel guided to do and guided to take, which I did, then the universe is going to
find a way to make money a non-issue for me.
And one of the blessings, and I understand my blessing when I say this, but early last
year in 2024, I received an inheritance from my aunt.
And so it was easy for me to pay for the trip because of that, regardless of how my business
(10:49):
was doing, I had that available to me.
And I know my mom told me after we got the inheritance and she was in her 70s when she
passed and she had lived post stroke for over 20 years.
And so life was kind of hard for her to move around.
But my mom told me, she never was married, but she had a lifelong partner that she always
(11:11):
wanted to go on a cruise and her partner never took her on a cruise.
And so I just think about her dying with that wish of wanting to go on a cruise.
And so it felt like in a way I was also honoring the gift that she gave me by using it to go
on this trip that I wanted to go on.
And so for me, had I not had that, my financial situation would have been a little bit different.
(11:37):
And I would have had to think a little bit harder about, is this the right way to spend
my money?
But again, I'm blessed with the idea and the understanding and the knowing that when you
do something that is aligned to your soul that is going to open you up and expand you,
the money always finds a way of coming back.
And that's been true for me.
The other ways that I've looked at this has been when I spend money on coaching and other
(12:00):
programs, sometimes really high dollar things, I always find a way to be okay.
Like I'm not going to lose my house, I'm not going to lose my car or anything.
So I'm not saying like if you truly have to choose between putting food on your table
and going on a trip that it's wise to go on a trip.
(12:21):
But I think many of us hold on tighter to money than we probably need to.
And I don't think I know this.
I know this because money has been really deeply put into our nervous system around
just how we interact with it, how we think about it.
Often people feel like they never have enough and they're always scrimping and saving right
(12:41):
even though their bank account shows otherwise.
It's because it has nothing to do with the money and has to do with your nervous system
and how you view the world around money.
And so that would be I guess my thoughts and my advice around that is how can you again
in a smart way not truly sacrificing your safety and your ability to thrive.
(13:03):
But if something feels truly, truly aligned to you, to your soul, it'll be expansive for
you.
Like the money will find a way of working itself out and you can't take the money with
you at the end of the day.
Like the experience is going to go so much deeper into your life than that money in your
bank account will.
So that was as I thought about money and again knowing my blessings and what I had received
(13:28):
as a gift at the beginning of last year, but I do believe that I received that in part
to allow me to continue to thrive and get to take these opportunities even as I was
building my business.
And so again, it all felt very divinely orchestrated for me.
The next thing that came up, which I heard a lot of people talk about too was safety.
(13:50):
And this was one of my concerns as well.
And one of my questions was around safety.
Is it safe to travel there?
And again, it's based on all the shit that we're taught and we're told about Cuba.
And when we were there, I think it was off the terror watch list for just a couple of
weeks.
I think Biden took it off right before he left office and then Trump put it back on.
(14:13):
And so there was a bit of a circle around that.
So there's this idea that it's an unsafe place to travel.
And perhaps there's pockets where that's true.
I don't have the government intel, right, that they have.
But what I guess I had none of that when I made the decision.
(14:35):
I know that now.
I now know that there wasn't a single time there where I felt unsafe.
And even one of the women who's traveled around the world, she said, I would, there were
times she would go for three, four, five mile runs sometimes at night in Havana.
She's like, never did I feel unsafe.
And I wouldn't do that in every country that I traveled to.
(14:55):
But I didn't know that when I signed up.
So I know that now.
But now when I signed up, what I can tell you was I did ask those questions and Laura
did have a very good response, which was, I can't guarantee your safety anywhere, right?
I can't guarantee your safety in downtown Milwaukee or in Chicago.
And she said it's actually more unsafe to travel to Cancun than it is to go to Cuba.
(15:15):
And how many people do we see go into Cancun?
And at some point in the next few months, she even posted, see, they're the top 50 or
the top 100.
The top 50 most unsafe cities in the world.
There wasn't a single one from Cuba on that list, but there were certainly plenty from
the United States and from other cities that are popular travel destinations.
And so practically, I made the decision based on the information that I had, which was that
(15:43):
there is no reason that we can think of where safety would be an issue.
And again, you can say that for anywhere you go, right?
You're always making decisions based on what you know and shit happens.
But that's how I made the decision at the time was believing like physically that physical
safety would not be an issue based on what we knew.
(16:05):
And I also prepared myself so we had travel insurance that we had to get, which was only
the minimum was to cover us for when we were there.
But I ended up upgrading to the bigger travel insurance, which was I could cancel for any
reason at any time.
Because again, that helped me like if for some reason, a safety issue does come up that
(16:26):
we aren't prepared for because we were going to be gone over the inauguration after the
election.
We hadn't had the election when I signed up.
I could cancel if I needed to.
And I also knew that Laura was going to be in Cuba for three weeks before our trip.
And so if there was something that she saw, she would be there and she would tell us and
(16:46):
she would give us a reason not to travel.
And so there were all these mechanisms in place for me that helped me overcome that
safety objection.
But then the other perspective that I took on this was I also given the work that I've
done, I also know our feeling of safety is more of an inside our body issue than it is
(17:11):
an outside our body issue.
And what do I mean by that?
I mean, there are so many people who walk around in their day to day and they don't
feel safety in their body because of all the trauma that their body holds.
So typically when we don't feel safe, it's not necessarily the outer circumstance that's
(17:33):
telling us, ooh, you shouldn't be here.
It's really the outer circumstance is triggering some old pattern in the body that's coming
up as like a resonant pattern.
And that's what we're feeling.
And that is what we're responding to thinking we're in a place where it's unsafe, but really
it's an old trauma pattern.
(17:53):
So let me give an example.
Last summer, there were a couple of times where before I would start work, I would drop
the kids off at camp and then I would go for a walk down a trail.
And there were a couple of times going down that trail and they were well traveled trails.
It was morning.
There were plenty of people on those trails.
They were between busy streets and so it's not like I was going back into the woods by
(18:14):
myself, but I would feel this fear around, oh, I'm a woman alone in the woods.
And what I noticed and a lot of people would say, ooh, it's unsafe for me to be here.
But for me, the way I interpreted that was that's just an old fear from wherever I don't
have to know where it comes from, where it could be something I heard from the collective
(18:37):
about someone getting attacked in the woods or it could be a generational past life experience
where someone was attacked.
They were female walking alone.
And so it wasn't that I was in an unsafe place where there were people hiding in the bushes
waiting to attack me.
It was based on the scenario, this feeling of unsafety was coming up because our unconscious
(18:58):
is always looking at our outer world, trying to find resonant energy patterns in our body
to warn us basically.
And so what I did in those situations, instead of removing myself from the trail, I would
breathe through them and allow that fear to be there, which is how you dissipate the fear
from your body when you allow it, when you breathe through it.
(19:22):
And so I know the belief that I hold anyway is that safety in our body has more to do
with how we manage the inner energy of our body and less to do with what's going on around
us.
And so I knew that I would be able to manage that in a way where I could walk through Cuba
(19:44):
and feel completely safe.
And I knew that when I made the decision to travel, and that ended up being my experience,
there was never one single scenario where I felt like I was going to be attacked or felt
like I was going down a dark alley or anything like that.
And again, I don't put myself purposefully in situations that would be suspicious, right?
(20:06):
I'm not walking alone at night down dark alleys.
But I know and I knew that for me, safety is something that we can control just like
anything else in the world.
We're always blaming outside circumstances for the way we feel when really it's the
feeling state that we're in control of.
And we can learn to manage the feeling state in such a way that you can walk through a
(20:30):
place feeling safety.
And as long as I've been consciously doing this work, which I started in about 2019,
2020 learning to manage my inner energy, I felt a lot of fear, a lot of fear has come
up.
But none of it has been because I've actually been in an unsafe situation where I needed
to get out.
(20:51):
There were no lions attacking me.
There were no people waiting around corners to attack me.
It's all been old gunk that's come up.
And so I really don't even know what it would be like to be in a truly unsafe situation.
I have a feeling it would feel different.
It would be more like a gut punch.
Like we got to get the hell out of here.
Then it does more of a, for me, the fear comes up as more of like a dust cloud or like a
(21:14):
wave in my body.
That's when I know for me it's old energy versus like actual information that I have
to get the hell out of there.
And so I went in it with the idea that I control my own safety.
My safety is not dependent on what goes on around me.
The other thing, which I'll just put out there as long as I'm putting it out there,
(21:37):
I joked with one person about this, but I believe it too.
I was like, if it's my soul's plan and path to die in Cuba, like that's what's going
to happen.
I also believe that no death is an accident, that maybe from our tiny human brain vantage
point, it seems like an accident.
People die too young or the circumstance around it, whatever is unfortunate.
(21:59):
But I believe that from our higher perspective, from our soul's perspective, that everything
is intentionally planned and programmed based on what is perfect for us and what is perfect
for our family.
And so I came to this early COVID when a lot of people were afraid of dying.
For me, that's one of the things that COVID spun up for me was this fear of dying.
(22:21):
And so I faced it and I said, okay, death, like let's come do away where I'm not walking
around every day in my life afraid of dying because that's not living.
And so that's the perspective that I held going to Cuba too was, you know what, if this
is how I'm supposed to go out, that's what's going to happen.
(22:42):
And for me, I choose to live my life from a place of expansion and possibility than
I do from fear.
So those are the things that went into me making the decision to go to Cuba.
Next week I want to talk more about setting intentions on what I wanted to experience
in Cuba because I did that very differently than I've ever done before too.
(23:03):
And I think that will be really informative for all of you.
So come back next week if you want to hear all about that.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.