February 12, 2025 • 44 mins
Cuba was the first trip I’ve taken with intentionality around what I wanted to experience. Since my vision for FEMs are bold, powerful women that know how to partner with the Universe and create their reality, I want to share how I did that to give you a glimpse of what’s possible when you learn how to use your energy.
Today I share:
- The specific things I manifested (like parking spots and getting through customs)
- How you can tell the Universe if you need a healing break
- The non-specific intentions I set and why I created them the way I did
- The story behind my Cuban tattoo
- The ways magic showed up for me above and beyond the norm
Links mentioned:
- 17. How I Supported Myself Financially Since Leaving My Job https://rss.com/podcasts/biz-spiritual-path/1637386/
- Grab a FREE Dream Activation session with me! February 2025 only: https://calendly.com/andreaandree/25-min-dream-activation
- Unpacking Cuba, Part 1: Overcoming Objections and Deciding to Go https://rss.com/podcasts/biz-spiritual-path/1871850/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the Awakened Femme podcast. What is the Awakened Femme? To me it is the
(00:08):
woman who is fully standing in her power, in her bad assness, in her giving no fucks about the
world, what people think about her, and she is just wildly, totally herself and free. And she
has a command over her world because she knows that she is the ultimate creator of her reality.
(00:28):
She is tuned into her body, she is tuned into her energy, she is tuned into the bigger,
broader universe, and she understands how to play with both of those to create the world that she
wants to experience for herself. That is what today's episode is about. I want to talk about how I
took that energy with me to Cuba and created what felt like magic to me. And I don't share any of
(00:54):
this to brag or to say, hey, look at me, this is what I can do. I share this to show you what's
possible when you learn how to own yourself, own your energy, and then use it to command the world
around you. Because for me, I didn't know what else was possible in any of this until some people
started sharing their experiences. I remember years ago when people, when I first got into this
(01:18):
work, and people would talk about, oh, I made a festive money, I had a nowhere, and I'd be like,
where, where did it come from? Tell me, because my tiny brain can only imagine the lottery and
then inheritance, and that is it. And so for me, when, and actually, I didn't find anybody that
would share that, right? And so that's why in my past season and my previous season, I shared about
(01:41):
a lot of the places money had come from for me to support me since leaving my job. I share these
things with you to open your eyes to possibility. What is possible when you start to play in your
energy? So what I want to talk about today is how I took a lot of intentionality with me to Cuba.
It wasn't just a place where I was going just to vacation, which that was a big part of it, right?
(02:02):
I, of course, I wanted to experience the culture and get away for a little while, but I also wanted
to play in magic in a way that maybe I could see it a little bit differently than I can and could
in my everyday life. And so I went with intentions, I visualized some things along the way, and I
experienced what felt like magic to me. And it was a really amazing week. If you haven't gotten
(02:27):
that already from all that I've been talking about it. But the interesting thing was it wasn't
amazing for everybody. Some people flat out hated Cuba. And that's okay. Everyone goes in with their
own lens of the world. And that's why for me, it is just proof that our experience of life is not
what's outside of us. It's what's going on inside of us, how we're viewing the world, the emotions
(02:50):
and energies that are going on within us. And so if you learn how to view the world in a way that
is supporting to you and supportive to you, then that is what you're going to experience regardless
of where you go. Even if other people are having really shitty times, you can have a really wonderful
experience based on the perspective you're taking and where you want to go with it. So apparently
(03:12):
that was helpful and needed for somebody because I wasn't planning on seeing that but that came
through. So just remember is that the world that you experience is shaped by you, not by outer
circumstances. It is based on the thoughts and the emotions and the reactions and the responses
that you are having based on what's going on outside of you. And so that's why some people
(03:34):
are able to go with the punches and go with the flow, roll with the punches a little bit more
is because if they've tuned their inner world to allow that it has nothing to do with what's
happening to them, it has to do with how they've tuned their inner world. So in the last episode,
I talked about saying yes to Cuba. I was looking back at timing for me and I actually said yes in
(03:55):
March of last year. So March of 2024 and I didn't go until January of 2025. So all I knew in March
was that I wanted to go and I'm going to say yes. As it was getting closer, when I started to think
about Cuba, I was like, man, the timing of this feels so good because I seriously need a break
(04:16):
from my life. And it was to the point and I'm a mom and my kids are there now nine and six, right?
And so sometimes if you're a mom, you can relate maybe where you might have this fleeting moment
where you're like, you know what? What if I just disappeared and just went off to a tropical place
and changed my name and wore hot and sunglasses all the time just to get away from the heaviness
(04:41):
that comes with life? And I would never do that because I love my children, but I can tell you
that I certainly fantasized about it. But what I know now is that heaviness, again, that was
inner heaviness. It was a mixture of the perspectives that I was taking in my life.
And I also, I like to consider heaviness. It's an invitation from your soul to step into something
(05:07):
greater. And my something greater was really big and scary. And so I had a lot of inner heaviness
for months leading up to this trip. And it was a mixture of those things. And so part of me,
as the trip came closer, my intentions became, let's get away from this heaviness. Let's see
who I am without the confines of the life that I have right now, without the business, without the
(05:33):
kids. And again, I love those things. And I'm very happy. And I intentionally created those things.
So that doesn't mean that life doesn't get heavy every now and then. And I feel like if you can
take a step away every now and then and reset yourself for me, it was really beneficial to do
that. But that was why it was, I didn't have any better mechanisms at the time than to just like
(05:56):
disappear for a week. And so when people were talking about getting SIM cards, so they were
reachable, I was like, I'm going off grid. I don't want people to be able to reach me. I just want
to be able to be free for a week. And so that's what I did. And so it became more helpful and
important, I guess, the timing and everything for me always works out very well in terms of timing.
(06:17):
And I feel like everything gets divinely timed, even though I don't understand what the divine
timing is. Maybe when I say yes, and I didn't fully understand back in March, what I was going to
need this trip for. And so that was a big part of it. One of my intentions again, was just going in
and knowing who I am without these quote unquote inner constraints that I've put on myself. And for
(06:40):
me, boundaries are always self created. Like, yes, I have children. Yes, I'm married. Yes, I have this
business. But technically, I could walk away from any of those at any point. There is nothing
physically holding me to any of that. And so I believe that anywhere I feel constrained, that is
self created. That's not necessarily like an actual constraint in the world. Hopefully that makes
(07:06):
sense. It doesn't make me sound like a bitch. And so that's the perspective that I've been looking
at is I might feel constrained in my life. But where is that just a perspective and an illusion
that I can change to work with me? But again, I was so stuck in it before I went that I couldn't
even get to that perspective. Thankfully, I'm getting out of it now. And that's probably a
(07:28):
different podcast for a different day. What I wanted to talk about, I haven't even really started yet,
is the magic that I took with me to Cuba, the visualization, the manifestation, the intentions,
and then some of the magic that I experienced. So now that I've sort of laid the groundwork on
what it was going through before I went, now I'm going to get into the fun stuff. So one of the
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first things that was very concerning on my mind was my parking spot at the airport. I was
thinking through this whole thing. And this is you're going to get a glimpse at what goes on in my
brain. So it's January in Wisconsin, and I'm going to a tropical place. And so I'm going from cold to
hot. When it's cold, I wear a winter jacket, I wear lots of clothes, I wear boots, but I wasn't
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going to wear those because then they would be stuck with me on me and with me. And then I would
have to lug them around Cuba. So I didn't want to lug a bunch of heavy stuff around Cuba, both
because of where I left and then where I was coming back to a week later. And not only that,
but I knew at least leaving, I was going to have three pieces of luggage to get from my parking
(08:34):
spot into the airport because I had my own checked bag with all my clothes and things. And then I
took an extra checked bag full of donations for the Cuban people. And then I had my little carry-on.
And so because of those things, because I did not want to be lugging myself through the cold
with no coat, and because I knew I would have a lot of suitcases, I had one place that I wanted
(08:57):
to find a parking spot for at the Madison Airport. And at the Madison Airport, there's outside surface
parking, which you can walk to. And there is a parking structure with one tunnel, what's it called,
like an overpass, an indoor overpass on the second floor that goes from the parking structure to the
airport. And that is where I wanted to park right as close as possible to that tunnel. And so I spent
(09:21):
weeks just imagining myself driving up right to the tunnel, finding the parking spot and getting
into the airport and guess the hell what? I got a parking spot pretty much right there. It was not
because the tunnel comes out and then there's a row of cars and then there's a second row of cars.
And so it's not in that first row of cars, but it was right there in that second row of cars,
(09:43):
literally right across from the parking from the tunnel. And to me, that was amazing. And a great
way to kick off the trip. Not a great way to kick off the trip. Then I had to pay $200 in baggage
fees because both of my bags were overweight. And I had different information that said that I could
(10:03):
take an overweight bag, it turns out I couldn't. So I just chose to pay it instead of sitting there
shuffling back and forth. I said, you know what, I'm just going to pay it move on. And then I was
like, okay, at universe now I just have to manifest the money back, right? Like money is money. And
time and other things, I would rather just pay the money and move on for me. Safety and timing
(10:25):
are more of a priority than money. So I chose to pay and move on. The next thing I visualized myself
was at the end of my three flights was going through customs and getting through customs
easily and getting into Cuba. I'd heard it actually wasn't too much of an issue, but I didn't know,
(10:45):
right? I wanted to be able to get in. I had these bags full of things. One of the bags was not mine.
I really had no idea what was in there. I was taking medicines for other people. And so I just
imagined myself going through customs very easily. Just imagine walking through no problems,
no one asking me anything. And then here's the flip side, you have to act as if it's happening.
(11:10):
And so it's not enough to just visualize. So then in my body, I had to actually walk through customs
as if, and I'm going to say it like a bold bitch, right? Like bold bitch energy, like you can't touch
me. And I don't mean it in a negative, harmful way. I just meant like, I got this, right? I'm in
control. And I know I'm good because I knew I was good. There was nothing illegally that I was doing.
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Everything was within the confines of what I was told I could do. So I walked through customs, no
problem in out of the airport. And the girl that I was traveling with we met on the third plane
in Miami, we met up there. And I went through, I got out, I met our driver, I turned around to
look for her, she was nowhere to be found. Her bag got flagged and she had to go back and get checked.
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And so like five, 10 minutes, I'm like, she was just right behind me. I have absolutely no idea
where she went to a driver who didn't speak English. And so we're both just kind of staring at each
other like, I'm pointing, she was just right there. But visualization, that's what I was able to do,
getting through customs. Okay, so that was the beginning of the trip. And then I'll come to
the other visualizations in a second. But what I want to jump to right now is also at the beginning
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of the trip, I set some intentions for what I wanted to experience when I was in Cuba. And so
I have those right here in my notebook, which only matters if you're watching this, if you're
listening, just trust me that I wrote them in my notebook, I put them in my notebook on the plane,
I wanted to ground it. And so I'd been thinking about these for a while. But I wanted for me,
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when you write them down, it like grounds them, it just puts a different energy around them than
if they're just swirling around in the ethers. And so the way I phrased these was, what do I
desire to experience in Cuba? And for me, it was not specific to an outer thing like, oh, I want
to go dancing and I want to ride horses and I want someone to say this to me, it was not necessarily
(13:10):
an outer thing for me, I phrased it based on what I wanted to feel and experience in my body.
Because again, that is all we have. Our body is all we have to experience the world around us.
We're experiencing temperature, sound, light, sensations, emotions, like that is our experience
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of the world. And so I wanted to say, okay, universe, this is what I want to feel,
which is this is what I want to experience. And in a way of keeping it more focused on the feeling,
is my way of saying, surprise me, like show me what are all the ways that I can feel this.
So I'm just going to read you my list again, just to help you understand and see what it kind of looks
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like. And just my approach. And you can use this list, not use this list, like I don't care. Again,
I'm showing you what I wrote down. And then I'll talk with a few examples of how it actually came
to fruition. So the first thing, which I actually forgot to write down until after, but this one
was in my brain, was radical presence. Like I just wanted to be able to go to Cuba and just
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be present for all of it. Just no judgment. So what does presence mean for me? For me, presence
partially is in your body or out of your head, because your head always has stories, your head
out is always judging. Oftentimes your head is either in the past or in the future. But for me,
I wanted to be in the here and then now in the just soaking it all in without judging any
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of it and just being present to what I was feeling in my body, being present to what was going on
around me. And so it's almost like an observing of the world and an observing of what's going on
in your body without a judgment, without a story. And so I do believe that that was one of the reasons
that I felt so good all week was because I was present. And when we think about mindfulness,
(15:08):
what I've learned about mindfulness and people say, Oh, stop the thoughts.
For me, it's not about stopping the thought so much as it's getting my awareness out of my head
completely and into my body, because there aren't necessarily thoughts flowing through my body.
And so for me, being present was all about being with my body, but also being with the
experience as it was showing up without judging anything that happened. The other intention
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that I put out there, which I urge you to use whenever you need this one, I've used this one
before. No healing unless absolutely necessary. So I asked the universe, can I please just take a
healing break? And for me, healing is getting triggered, fight or flight, people pissing you
off, because those situations show up to show you what's in your unconscious that you're holding
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onto that's ready to be released. And I've done a fuck ton of crying since 2020. And I really did
not want to have to do any of it this week. And so I said, no healing unless absolutely necessary.
And there were a couple times actually that I get got triggered a little bit. And so I dealt with it.
But I, for the most part, again, just radically present radically with myself with the people,
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just being open to the experience. So those were sort of my higher level intentions. A couple of
the other ones that I wanted to experience. So the first one, ease, go with the flow trusting the
higher order of everything. And so with that, how that showed up, one ease, go with the flow. So
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there were a few times when it rained, when our activities got canceled, or they got moved around.
And so one time, I did get upset about it, because it was supposed to be on my birthday, we're
supposed to go to the beach and the weather was not good enough to go to the beach. And so the night
before when they canceled the beach, I sat in my bed and I said, you know, I'm going to let myself
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be pissed about this for just a little bit, because I'm allowed to be pissed. I came here to go to the
beach, I don't get to go to the beach on my birthday. And then it was out of my body. And so when you
allow the feeling, just allow it without judging it, then you can move on. And so that's what I did.
But for the most part, we had other things get canceled. And I went with it. When there was no
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power, I went with it, trusting the higher order of everything. So other things when we were riding
horses, when we were in cars with no seatbelts, just trusting that I was safe the whole time.
As if you listen to the first episode of this series, I believe that there's no accidents for
anything. And so if there was supposed to be an accident, like it was going to happen, me worrying
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about there being an accident and it's going to change it, or me worrying about there being an
accident, there's no accident, like it just means I spend the whole time worrying. And so I just
trusted like if something is supposed to happen to hurt me or whatever, like it will happen,
but I don't need to worry about that. So I trusted the higher order of everything that was going on.
Because I got kicked by a horse in my leg. And it was probably in the best possible place I
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could have gotten kicked, because it was in the meaty part of my thigh and the side of my thigh.
It was so close to my patella, man, I would have been so messed up had I gotten my patella.
But again, I trust I trust that there's a reason for all of it. And so all of that, go with the
flow, trusting the higher order of everything. Did I do it perfectly? No. But did I do it
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way better than I would have? Had I not set the intention? Yes, yes, I did. The second one
that I wanted to experience, abundance, monetary and otherwise. This is an interesting one because
Cuba used to be very abundant. We got the history and starting about, and I'm so bad with history
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and dates, guys, this, I find history now fascinating. I hated it in high school because
it was all about, oh, in 1972, this happened in 1984, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I can't remember
dates for the life of me. And I know I'm speaking that into existence. But that's just been my
experience. And so roughly around the 20s, I believe when prohibition was happening in the
(19:24):
United States, people fled to Cuba because they could drink in Cuba, they could party,
they could gamble, like Cuba was open to all of that. And so there was a lot of money poured into
Cuba. And if you go to Havana, you see remnants of that money, the architecture is stunning.
It is stunning. And it is sad that it has not been kept up in many places. But you just look at it
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and you just imagine like what it must have been like in that time period. Because then in the 60s,
embargo, money stopped coming in and it's been a different story ever since. So I say that because
you go there and it's very visible that it is no longer like there's pockets of abundance. And even
our guide would say like, we don't know where the government gets the money. Somehow they get the
(20:10):
money. So there must be something going on. So there's pockets of abundance. But it is very clear
that there is no longer a ton of abundance in Cuba. And yet abundance means more than money.
Right. And so when you look around, we also experience an abundance of food, which we almost
felt bad about. Because again, in a place where it's hard for them to find food, they were serving
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us. They were over serving us for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner. And so there was certainly
an abundance. There was an abundance of like care and community. And so abundance is more
than just money. It's a feeling. It's having more than you need. It's just this feeling of being
connected to something that's bigger than you. And there were feelings of monetary abundance,
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because things are quote unquote cheaper there than they are in the United States. So a perfectly
crafted mojito might be the equivalent of like three or four US dollars, where in the US, I mean,
it's a lot more than that these days, meals with a nice meal and a drink, maybe $25. Right. Maybe not
even souvenirs, cheap. And so monetarily wise, there wasn't a feeling of abundance because we
(21:27):
came from the frame of the United States. And then just a really silly thing, the exchange rate. So
the first night we were told bring $200 to exchange. And so I brought two paper $100 bills,
and I got back a stack of money that was probably close to an inch thick. Two $100 bills was the
equivalent of 54,000 Cuban pesos, 54,000. And so I had a stack of 50s and 500s. And damn, that makes you,
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that makes you feel abundant, even if it's like a false sense of abundance. So a little silly, but
again, that's where when you open it up to the universe and you let the universe surprise you,
you're like, okay, this is how we're feeling abundance. The next one I want to do experience
with gratitude and man, just seeing the people and their conditions and how they live and they
(22:21):
still live and they're happy. It gives you a really sense of gratitude for what you have.
Not only that, but some of the biggest things of gratitude I came back for were just like water,
having such easy access to water. So their water gets rationed, they have storage containers on
their roof. So every time I flushed a toilet or took a shower, I had to think is this going to
(22:46):
be the last of their water. And so we took quick showers, we were happy to have showers, right?
And so I was really, really grateful for something so simple when I came back and just so grateful
for the people and everything that they offered, they just have such a giving spirit and just
(23:06):
being able to be part of that giving spirit just filled me with gratitude as well. The next thing
I wrote down was connection to myself, nature, others and something bigger. And so this is probably
its own podcast too, but I feel like most of us were lacking true connection and it's not necessarily
to other people. Most of us when we're looking for connection from others, typically the connection
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we're looking for is to ourselves and to God source the universe, whatever you want to call it.
And so for me, connection starts within, it starts with the biggest connection,
and then you bring it out when you feel connected to the truth of who you are,
then you can feel connected to those other things. And so I did feel more connected to myself.
My sense of self is not my skin, it's not my body, right? It's the energy that wants to come
(23:56):
through my body. And so I felt connected, I felt like I could joke, I could laugh, I could be happy
and just be myself, right? And so I felt connected to myself, I felt connected to nature. There were
times we were out in nature, we were riding horses, or we might have been going for a walk.
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So there were certainly, and that was an everyday Havana, lots of buildings, lots of concrete,
but even still they had plants all around. And so there was still that connection to nature,
connection to others. So shout out to my roommate Darcy and some of the women that I was able to
connect with deeply on that trip, either part of our group or even miniature connections with
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people that I couldn't even talk to because I don't know Spanish, shame on me for not even looking
at a word of Spanish before I went, right? But I realized there was one night after the pig roast
where dancing was happening and I'm like, you know what, you don't need language to connect
through dance and through music. Like you can just connect. And so that was really special to me.
(25:02):
And then of course, something bigger, just knowing just all these experiences, just knowing that
there's something bigger that I'm connected to that's working with me was really profound for me.
The next thing, wild, raw and unscripted. So again, that was just me wanting to be out without my
quote unquote inner confines of my current life and just be me. And even though I felt that,
(25:27):
like, most of the time, most of the moments, there were certainly a few, few moments where I
really put my hair down. So one of them when we were riding horses, I've always wanted, I hate when
you're like, doododododo, like riding in the line. And I've always wanted to take a horse fast.
(25:48):
And in Cuba, there's no rules, you're not signing any legal documents saying that you're not going
to sue anyone because it doesn't matter, right? So I said, can I take this horse go fast? And
they're like, yeah, yeah, whatever. They probably didn't know what I was saying. But we all got
there and people are getting off their horses and going to the farm. And I took mine back out.
And I turned it around towards the farm. And I was like, all right, here we go. And it took off.
(26:12):
And it was way faster than I thought it would go. And it was a little scarier than I thought it
would be. And then right in our way was a mud puddle. So we kind of went around and this was
like trusting the higher order of things. I'm like, all right, I just got to trust that this
horse knows what it's doing and just not try to control the horse around this mud puddle, right?
(26:33):
And so I just took a breath and I just held on, held on really tight. And then I came
barreling in and they're like, whoa, whoa, did you meant to do that? I'm like, yeah, yeah,
I meant to do that. Holy smokes, right? So that was, felt a little wild, probably a little stupid.
But you know what? Every everything was okay. I had planned on trying the tobacco and the cigars.
(26:53):
And so certainly that's part of the experience. And so I tried it. It wasn't my favorite feeling.
It was very, I reached out to a shaman friend before and I said, what can I expect with tobacco?
Because me, I was looking at it as a plant medicine, which it is a plant and it probably is a medicine
for some people. And I was hoping I could be out. I my joke was everyone will be in the barn playing
(27:16):
cards, playing dominoes. And I'll be on tobacco and I'll be out in the field like dancing with
aliens or something silly like that, like in my little fairy rave, right? That was not my experience.
It was very, she said it's going to be very grounding. And who I will tell you, for me grounding,
how it showed up for me, I was puffing away, puffing away and then they're passing around
(27:37):
because that farm also makes rum. So little shots of rum, some puffing away, so my cigar doesn't go
out and taking little shots of rum, feeling nothing, nothing, nothing. And then all of a sudden, whoosh,
my body just gets super heavy. And I just felt like I needed to just sit still and not move.
And so I did what I could. We did the rest of our little demonstration in the tobacco hut.
(27:59):
And then with all the strength I could muster, I walked myself out to the little tent where we
were going to have lunch and I just sat there and I didn't care who came up to me, whatever. There
was a cat that came up to me, but I could not move. And so that was me being wild and raw,
I suppose, was just trying the tobacco, trying the rum, deciding I didn't really like it,
(28:23):
which I kind of expected. I probably wasn't going to like it. I know when you do a lot of healing
through your body, the vibration of your body changes. Like this is why I can't really drink
alcohol much anymore is because alcohol is a low vibrational, like it is a toxin, right? And my
body just, it doesn't feel good anymore. I used to feel good. It used to be really fun back when I
(28:46):
didn't have, I feel like, and this is a total side tangent, but for me, when I think about alcohol,
it was just a gateway to connecting with myself and to letting my guard down on who I thought I
was and the judgments I had toward myself and just having fun. And now that I've learned how to do
that without alcohol, it's like, I don't really need alcohol anymore, right? And so I tried it
(29:08):
as I was in Cuba and I wanted to try the whole experience. I didn't love it, but whatever.
The, let's see, there was the night of dancing. Just dancing again. I didn't really have a drink
that day. I just let myself dance how I felt like I wanted to dance. That same night, I was
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beautifully surprised with the birthday cake and apparently it's tradition where they rub
the frosting all over your face. And so I just let it happen. Just like, all right, let's just go
with it. They're going to rub frosting on my face. Let's go with it. My girls want to lick
frosting off my face. We're going to go with it. Like, I just went with it. Go with the flow.
Raw wild unscripted. The final thing I did was I got a tattoo. I guess I can show it because
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some of you will watch this on video if you haven't seen it already. So it's right on my
upper arm right in front and it's a horseshoe with the Cuban flower and it says Cuba. And for me,
the horseshoe, I'd already decided that I wanted something to commemorate my trip because I already
knew it was going to be a special trip. Then I get kicked by a horse and like, there we go, horseshoe.
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It's perfect. It's a great story. But it's also like I like country music and so it kind of gives
that country vibe which I realize afterwards. But it also, for me, being right there right in front,
just as bold as it is, I look down and it's this reminder for me of how I felt raw, wild, and
unscripted. And so like to bring the essence of the energy back to me. And so it was crazy. People
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are like, you got tattoo in Cuba? I'm like, yeah, my tour guide had tattoos all over his arms and
his arms hadn't fallen off. So I'm sure it was fine and it's been fine. Barely any issues since
getting the tattoo. So that was raw, wild, and unscripted. My next one, freedom and joy. And I
think it's probably kind of obvious based on some of the things I've talked about, just feeling
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freedom from just the confines and the heaviness of day to day life and just feeling joy. Like
when people surprise me with birthday cake, feeling joy, feeling the joy in the moments,
in the food, in the experience of seeing all the old architecture, like there was just so much joy
everywhere. And I just felt like just in a way that I haven't allowed myself to feel that in a while.
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Surprises and magic around every corner. So I won't say in hindsight, I mean, I do think if you just
look at life as magical, like a lot of it was magical. Two things in particular do stand out,
like above and beyond is uber magical. So one of them was when we were in Vignales,
which was out in the country, we didn't have Wi-Fi at our casa. And again, we had no electricity.
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But even when there was electricity, there wasn't really Wi-Fi. And so I had to quick plug in when
we went out to dinner at the restaurants. And so there was one night where I was able to get
messages from my parents. And I just checked in. And one of the messages I got from my husband from
the day before was, can you please call me? And I was like, oh, shit, hope everything's okay. That's
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not the message you want to get when you can't communicate with people. So I just sent back,
you know, I was everything, okay, let me know, I'm here, but I'm not going to have Wi-Fi again.
And so then the next day, I still hadn't heard back from him. And I'd heard back from my mom.
And so I knew the messages were getting through. And so I was like, shit, I wonder, like, did
something happen? I knew he was sick before I left. And so I was just worrying a little bit
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about back home, like what is going on? Why didn't he communicate? And so when we were in our casa,
no Wi-Fi that I was connected to, I got a message through from my daughter. I'm like,
okay, so they're okay, they're fine. And I literally cannot explain how that happened.
I think we had power at this point. But again, when I checked my Wi-Fi connection,
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I was not connected to anything. So I have no idea how that came through. I believe that it was just
the universe sending me some magic. So that way I knew that they were okay. So that was magic number one.
Magic number two, in Vignales, we had different casas that we were staying at. And so my casa,
there were six of us, and then there were like two to three scattered throughout the other casas,
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there were 14 women total. And again, no power. Somehow my casa, even with no power, we had water.
And so I could flush a toilet, I could run a sink, and I could take a shower, even though it was not
supposed to be a warm shower. And I'm going through my head, of course, my engineering background,
I'm like, how does this work without electricity? And so the best I could come up with was gravity,
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because the water was on the roof, and the water came down. And other women did not have that luxury.
Some of them, with no power, they ran out of water. Or with power, they ran out of water. So I never
ran out of water the entire time. And somehow, even more magical, I finally, when I came back
from the horse farm, was like, I need a shower. I'm disgusting. I took a shower, and it was warm. It
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was not hot. It was kind of like it had been baking in the sun for a while, kind of warm.
But I never had to take a cold shower the whole week. And again, some of the women
had to take cold showers. So those were my magic. And again, surprise this magic around every corner.
Like everything just I approached it was surprise and delight. But those were the two things that
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really stuck up and above and beyond for me. And then finally, the last intention, rest, energy,
and vitality. And so before I went like for months, before I went to Cuba, I would just check in with
my body and be like, All right, what's going on? And be like, I'm tired. I'm tired. And not all of
that is because of my life. Like being a mom, I think I don't know if you ever truly get rest
(35:00):
when you're a mom of little kids. But also, there's been so many energy upgrades happening to our
bodies that our bodies are getting a little fried right now. And so this is the reason self care,
Lee Harris and his guides will say it's not a luxury, it's a necessity. That's because our nervous
systems, not only by life by chaos of the world, but by the light coming on the planet that is
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helping with our ascension. And so I just wanted to be able to rest when I wanted to rest. But
also I know the energy and vitality when you just let that run through your body without judgment,
without stopping it, like that revitalizes you too. And so I did totally feel energetic, revitalize,
like I laid down when I needed to lay down. And I came back, some of that tired feeling came back
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when I came home. And so I'm working through like what does that mean and how can I
shift what's going on in my life so that way I'm not so tired all the time. But I totally felt like
vital, energized, rested when I was there. So those are my intentions. What do I desire to
experience? And again, based on what I wanted to feel through my body and that necessarily like
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specific things in the outside world, a couple of the other things that I wanted to share in terms
of intentions, intentionality that were not written down. One of them was eating the food as if it
couldn't hurt me. So I went there, we had to take special water bottles. So that way, you know,
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they, if you go to Mexico, they joke about Montezuma's revenge, like you get the bug and you get the
bug and you get the poo poo's right and I had to I took special antibiotics just in case that happened.
And then the first night I'm there, I'm like, Oh, I'm getting tacos, should I be eating tacos
because I'm eating them with my hands and are my hands unclean and oh, the water and all the drinks
and all the ice and all the things is like, you know, I'm going to make myself sick, because you
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attract what you fear. And so if I act like the food can hurt me, then there's a high possibility
that it will hurt me. And so I decided, you know, I'm just going to act as if the food can't hurt
me. And again, I wasn't stupid about it. I still brush my teeth with bottled water. I still drank
out of my water bottle. But there was a time when a guy cut open a coconut and rinse it in water
and gave it to me to eat. I'm like, All right, I'm just going to eat it as if it's fine. I'm just
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going to eat this food. I always use hand sanitizer and wipes, especially because there were some
situations without houses. And I do not like, I don't like our houses. I don't like porta potty's,
but I can tolerate them if I can wash my hands in soap and water. But even this one place,
no soap and water. So I had wipes, I had hand sanitizer, and I said, you know, we're just
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going to trust that that's enough. And I didn't get sick the whole time. And others did get sick.
I can't say if it's from the food. I also do believe that had I gotten sick, there would have been a
higher order for it. And so again, I go in with what I intend to feel I intend to be healthy.
But then I'm also going to go with the flow if the opposite happens. And this was the second
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part there was a day when I was starting to feel a rumbly and my tumbling. And other people were
starting to go down, it was sort of midweek and other people are starting to get head colds and
other things. I was like, this is not happening to me. And so I spent five minutes before we went
out to dinner, just in this rocking chair, just visualizing myself being healthy. Because I'd
also been reading about parallel realities and how you can like jump from one reality to the other
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based on your intention and the way you feel and what you focus on. So I'm like, I'm going to jump
myself into a reality where I'm not feeling sick. And so I spent five minutes doing that before I
went to dinner. And then I still went to dinner feeling a little queasy. And it could have been
queasy or it could have been hunger, I wasn't sure. But once I ate, I was fine and it never came back.
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And so I didn't go with the story of, Oh, I'm getting sick, I'm getting sick. I went with the
story of, Nope, I'm not getting sick. And actually, I don't even like the term getting sick, because
the universe still, still here sick and it focuses on sick. For me, I was focusing on healthy, well
feeling good. And then the last one. And I know this is probably getting long and you're like,
Oh, she almost done the last one, getting back through customs. So again, coming back into the
(39:24):
United States. So I was coming with rum and cigars, Cuban cigars, which are illegal to sell here,
honey, from the farm, all of which I had bought legally. So with my visa, our visa was called
support of the Cuban people. So we were allowed to buy those as long as it was directly from the
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farmers. So you can't buy those from government run stores and then bring them back in the country.
I had to buy them directly from the farmers and there were up to 50 cigars up to two bottles of
rum. And so there were limits too. And so it was under or at the limits. And so everything I did
was legal. But I knew they still could question me, right? And so I imagined going through customs
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again, like a bold bitch, like, I'm totally good. Everything's going to be fine. I imagined it.
And what happened when we got close, I was with one other girl, there was only one other person
on my flight, the others took other flights. And right before we got there, she's like, you go
ahead of me, I got to get my papers out. So I went ahead of her and I went up to this agent. And I
(40:28):
swear it could not have been easier. It was almost like, that's it. Like, did I really just go through
customs? Because he said, where are you coming back from Cuba? Do you have anything to declare?
I said, no, because I didn't like legally based on the list, I had nothing to declare. Are you
bringing anything back with you? I said, yep, souvenirs. Because again, that's what they were.
That's what I was told to say. And then he was asking me about Cuba and he was smiling. He was
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like, how was it? Did you enjoy it? How did you get around? Do you speak Spanish? And he had these
questions. And then finally I asked him, like, are you interested in going? Are you able to go
someday? And he's like, no, I'd get fired for my job. I was like, oh, yeah, your Homeland Security,
probably not going to be going to Cuba. But it was like a friendly experience. And then I got
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through, I was like, again, I pick up my bag, and then we just drop it off. And that was it. And the
girl who I probably would have had her agent had she not switched spots with me, she said,
she was told by the agent, if you have rum in your bag, we're going to dump it in front of you.
It's like, oh, somehow that didn't happen. She made it home with her stuff. And then I heard from
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others that were on a different flight. One of the girls did get questioned and she did get
her things taken away. And so again, it's not necessarily the outer world, I believe anyway.
It's what's going on in your inner world that also dictates what's going on. And she was already mad
at the trip. She was already hating Cuba. And so for me, this is just like, what she was focusing on
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was not enjoying the trip. And so this is she got that reinforced back to her. And I mean, no offense
when I say that it's just me, like, my perspective of what went on, where I was able to get through
so easily. And then I gave them my bag, they didn't even inspect my bag. And so the whole time,
like, are they going to inspect it without me? Like, I don't even know my bag made it through the
(42:23):
rum and the cigars. And then I said, Nope, I'm just going to imagine that I get to the airport,
Madison, and I pick up my bag and it's still heavy. And I did, I picked up my bag, it was still heavy,
I got home, I still had everything. And it was amazing. So that got pretty long. But again,
I wanted to highlight all the magic like magic is available to you in your life. If you're open,
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open to it. If you are willing to experience it. And if you know how to look for it, because you
have to look for it, it's already there in your life, I promise you. But typically, we don't
notice it if we're too in our brains. So when you can learn how to look for the magic, it is there,
it is all around. So hopefully this episode, just open your eyes to what is possible. When you start
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to play with energy and intentionality and visualization. And again, then you just have
to believe it in your body and act as if it's true, right, just walk through customs act as if it's
true. So that is my experience. And I'm going to do something, let's see, this will come out in
February. So it'll still be time in February, I'm offering free, I'm calling them dream activations.
(43:39):
So if you've got something going on that you need a little help with, or you just want to talk to
someone about, then book a session, it's free, it's not a sales call, I'll leave the link below.
February only right now, I'm just testing them out to see how they go. But let's talk through
them because what I've learned, and this is sort of an aside of the topic today. But what I've learned
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is, if you don't feel like your dream is meant for you, if you don't feel like you're worthy of your
dream, or if you're deserving of whatever it is, you're not going to do the work to go after it.
It's like, once you feel it in your body, though, once it's awake in your body, then you're like,
damn, yes, yes, I want more of this. And so I want to help you activate that in your body.
(44:28):
So I'm going to do them for free. 30 minutes just for funsies, just to see how they go.
Everything in my business right now is an experiment. While I see what's six, what doesn't.
So if you listen to this in February 2025, and that is something that you would like to book with me,
then go below and grab that time. And I will be back next week.
Welcome back to the Awakened Femme podcast. What is the Awakened Femme? To me it is the
(00:08):
woman who is fully standing in her power, in her bad assness, in her giving no fucks about the
world, what people think about her, and she is just wildly, totally herself and free. And she
has a command over her world because she knows that she is the ultimate creator of her reality.
(00:28):
She is tuned into her body, she is tuned into her energy, she is tuned into the bigger,
broader universe, and she understands how to play with both of those to create the world that she
wants to experience for herself. That is what today's episode is about. I want to talk about how I
took that energy with me to Cuba and created what felt like magic to me. And I don't share any of
(00:54):
this to brag or to say, hey, look at me, this is what I can do. I share this to show you what's
possible when you learn how to own yourself, own your energy, and then use it to command the world
around you. Because for me, I didn't know what else was possible in any of this until some people
started sharing their experiences. I remember years ago when people, when I first got into this
(01:18):
work, and people would talk about, oh, I made a festive money, I had a nowhere, and I'd be like,
where, where did it come from? Tell me, because my tiny brain can only imagine the lottery and
then inheritance, and that is it. And so for me, when, and actually, I didn't find anybody that
would share that, right? And so that's why in my past season and my previous season, I shared about
(01:41):
a lot of the places money had come from for me to support me since leaving my job. I share these
things with you to open your eyes to possibility. What is possible when you start to play in your
energy? So what I want to talk about today is how I took a lot of intentionality with me to Cuba.
It wasn't just a place where I was going just to vacation, which that was a big part of it, right?
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I, of course, I wanted to experience the culture and get away for a little while, but I also wanted
to play in magic in a way that maybe I could see it a little bit differently than I can and could
in my everyday life. And so I went with intentions, I visualized some things along the way, and I
experienced what felt like magic to me. And it was a really amazing week. If you haven't gotten
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that already from all that I've been talking about it. But the interesting thing was it wasn't
amazing for everybody. Some people flat out hated Cuba. And that's okay. Everyone goes in with their
own lens of the world. And that's why for me, it is just proof that our experience of life is not
what's outside of us. It's what's going on inside of us, how we're viewing the world, the emotions
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and energies that are going on within us. And so if you learn how to view the world in a way that
is supporting to you and supportive to you, then that is what you're going to experience regardless
of where you go. Even if other people are having really shitty times, you can have a really wonderful
experience based on the perspective you're taking and where you want to go with it. So apparently
(03:12):
that was helpful and needed for somebody because I wasn't planning on seeing that but that came
through. So just remember is that the world that you experience is shaped by you, not by outer
circumstances. It is based on the thoughts and the emotions and the reactions and the responses
that you are having based on what's going on outside of you. And so that's why some people
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are able to go with the punches and go with the flow, roll with the punches a little bit more
is because if they've tuned their inner world to allow that it has nothing to do with what's
happening to them, it has to do with how they've tuned their inner world. So in the last episode,
I talked about saying yes to Cuba. I was looking back at timing for me and I actually said yes in
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March of last year. So March of 2024 and I didn't go until January of 2025. So all I knew in March
was that I wanted to go and I'm going to say yes. As it was getting closer, when I started to think
about Cuba, I was like, man, the timing of this feels so good because I seriously need a break
(04:16):
from my life. And it was to the point and I'm a mom and my kids are there now nine and six, right?
And so sometimes if you're a mom, you can relate maybe where you might have this fleeting moment
where you're like, you know what? What if I just disappeared and just went off to a tropical place
and changed my name and wore hot and sunglasses all the time just to get away from the heaviness
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that comes with life? And I would never do that because I love my children, but I can tell you
that I certainly fantasized about it. But what I know now is that heaviness, again, that was
inner heaviness. It was a mixture of the perspectives that I was taking in my life.
And I also, I like to consider heaviness. It's an invitation from your soul to step into something
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greater. And my something greater was really big and scary. And so I had a lot of inner heaviness
for months leading up to this trip. And it was a mixture of those things. And so part of me,
as the trip came closer, my intentions became, let's get away from this heaviness. Let's see
who I am without the confines of the life that I have right now, without the business, without the
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kids. And again, I love those things. And I'm very happy. And I intentionally created those things.
So that doesn't mean that life doesn't get heavy every now and then. And I feel like if you can
take a step away every now and then and reset yourself for me, it was really beneficial to do
that. But that was why it was, I didn't have any better mechanisms at the time than to just like
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disappear for a week. And so when people were talking about getting SIM cards, so they were
reachable, I was like, I'm going off grid. I don't want people to be able to reach me. I just want
to be able to be free for a week. And so that's what I did. And so it became more helpful and
important, I guess, the timing and everything for me always works out very well in terms of timing.
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And I feel like everything gets divinely timed, even though I don't understand what the divine
timing is. Maybe when I say yes, and I didn't fully understand back in March, what I was going to
need this trip for. And so that was a big part of it. One of my intentions again, was just going in
and knowing who I am without these quote unquote inner constraints that I've put on myself. And for
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me, boundaries are always self created. Like, yes, I have children. Yes, I'm married. Yes, I have this
business. But technically, I could walk away from any of those at any point. There is nothing
physically holding me to any of that. And so I believe that anywhere I feel constrained, that is
self created. That's not necessarily like an actual constraint in the world. Hopefully that makes
(07:06):
sense. It doesn't make me sound like a bitch. And so that's the perspective that I've been looking
at is I might feel constrained in my life. But where is that just a perspective and an illusion
that I can change to work with me? But again, I was so stuck in it before I went that I couldn't
even get to that perspective. Thankfully, I'm getting out of it now. And that's probably a
(07:28):
different podcast for a different day. What I wanted to talk about, I haven't even really started yet,
is the magic that I took with me to Cuba, the visualization, the manifestation, the intentions,
and then some of the magic that I experienced. So now that I've sort of laid the groundwork on
what it was going through before I went, now I'm going to get into the fun stuff. So one of the
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first things that was very concerning on my mind was my parking spot at the airport. I was
thinking through this whole thing. And this is you're going to get a glimpse at what goes on in my
brain. So it's January in Wisconsin, and I'm going to a tropical place. And so I'm going from cold to
hot. When it's cold, I wear a winter jacket, I wear lots of clothes, I wear boots, but I wasn't
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going to wear those because then they would be stuck with me on me and with me. And then I would
have to lug them around Cuba. So I didn't want to lug a bunch of heavy stuff around Cuba, both
because of where I left and then where I was coming back to a week later. And not only that,
but I knew at least leaving, I was going to have three pieces of luggage to get from my parking
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spot into the airport because I had my own checked bag with all my clothes and things. And then I
took an extra checked bag full of donations for the Cuban people. And then I had my little carry-on.
And so because of those things, because I did not want to be lugging myself through the cold
with no coat, and because I knew I would have a lot of suitcases, I had one place that I wanted
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to find a parking spot for at the Madison Airport. And at the Madison Airport, there's outside surface
parking, which you can walk to. And there is a parking structure with one tunnel, what's it called,
like an overpass, an indoor overpass on the second floor that goes from the parking structure to the
airport. And that is where I wanted to park right as close as possible to that tunnel. And so I spent
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weeks just imagining myself driving up right to the tunnel, finding the parking spot and getting
into the airport and guess the hell what? I got a parking spot pretty much right there. It was not
because the tunnel comes out and then there's a row of cars and then there's a second row of cars.
And so it's not in that first row of cars, but it was right there in that second row of cars,
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literally right across from the parking from the tunnel. And to me, that was amazing. And a great
way to kick off the trip. Not a great way to kick off the trip. Then I had to pay $200 in baggage
fees because both of my bags were overweight. And I had different information that said that I could
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take an overweight bag, it turns out I couldn't. So I just chose to pay it instead of sitting there
shuffling back and forth. I said, you know what, I'm just going to pay it move on. And then I was
like, okay, at universe now I just have to manifest the money back, right? Like money is money. And
time and other things, I would rather just pay the money and move on for me. Safety and timing
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are more of a priority than money. So I chose to pay and move on. The next thing I visualized myself
was at the end of my three flights was going through customs and getting through customs
easily and getting into Cuba. I'd heard it actually wasn't too much of an issue, but I didn't know,
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right? I wanted to be able to get in. I had these bags full of things. One of the bags was not mine.
I really had no idea what was in there. I was taking medicines for other people. And so I just
imagined myself going through customs very easily. Just imagine walking through no problems,
no one asking me anything. And then here's the flip side, you have to act as if it's happening.
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And so it's not enough to just visualize. So then in my body, I had to actually walk through customs
as if, and I'm going to say it like a bold bitch, right? Like bold bitch energy, like you can't touch
me. And I don't mean it in a negative, harmful way. I just meant like, I got this, right? I'm in
control. And I know I'm good because I knew I was good. There was nothing illegally that I was doing.
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Everything was within the confines of what I was told I could do. So I walked through customs, no
problem in out of the airport. And the girl that I was traveling with we met on the third plane
in Miami, we met up there. And I went through, I got out, I met our driver, I turned around to
look for her, she was nowhere to be found. Her bag got flagged and she had to go back and get checked.
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And so like five, 10 minutes, I'm like, she was just right behind me. I have absolutely no idea
where she went to a driver who didn't speak English. And so we're both just kind of staring at each
other like, I'm pointing, she was just right there. But visualization, that's what I was able to do,
getting through customs. Okay, so that was the beginning of the trip. And then I'll come to
the other visualizations in a second. But what I want to jump to right now is also at the beginning
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of the trip, I set some intentions for what I wanted to experience when I was in Cuba. And so
I have those right here in my notebook, which only matters if you're watching this, if you're
listening, just trust me that I wrote them in my notebook, I put them in my notebook on the plane,
I wanted to ground it. And so I'd been thinking about these for a while. But I wanted for me,
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when you write them down, it like grounds them, it just puts a different energy around them than
if they're just swirling around in the ethers. And so the way I phrased these was, what do I
desire to experience in Cuba? And for me, it was not specific to an outer thing like, oh, I want
to go dancing and I want to ride horses and I want someone to say this to me, it was not necessarily
(13:10):
an outer thing for me, I phrased it based on what I wanted to feel and experience in my body.
Because again, that is all we have. Our body is all we have to experience the world around us.
We're experiencing temperature, sound, light, sensations, emotions, like that is our experience
(13:34):
of the world. And so I wanted to say, okay, universe, this is what I want to feel,
which is this is what I want to experience. And in a way of keeping it more focused on the feeling,
is my way of saying, surprise me, like show me what are all the ways that I can feel this.
So I'm just going to read you my list again, just to help you understand and see what it kind of looks
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like. And just my approach. And you can use this list, not use this list, like I don't care. Again,
I'm showing you what I wrote down. And then I'll talk with a few examples of how it actually came
to fruition. So the first thing, which I actually forgot to write down until after, but this one
was in my brain, was radical presence. Like I just wanted to be able to go to Cuba and just
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be present for all of it. Just no judgment. So what does presence mean for me? For me, presence
partially is in your body or out of your head, because your head always has stories, your head
out is always judging. Oftentimes your head is either in the past or in the future. But for me,
I wanted to be in the here and then now in the just soaking it all in without judging any
(14:43):
of it and just being present to what I was feeling in my body, being present to what was going on
around me. And so it's almost like an observing of the world and an observing of what's going on
in your body without a judgment, without a story. And so I do believe that that was one of the reasons
that I felt so good all week was because I was present. And when we think about mindfulness,
(15:08):
what I've learned about mindfulness and people say, Oh, stop the thoughts.
For me, it's not about stopping the thought so much as it's getting my awareness out of my head
completely and into my body, because there aren't necessarily thoughts flowing through my body.
And so for me, being present was all about being with my body, but also being with the
experience as it was showing up without judging anything that happened. The other intention
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that I put out there, which I urge you to use whenever you need this one, I've used this one
before. No healing unless absolutely necessary. So I asked the universe, can I please just take a
healing break? And for me, healing is getting triggered, fight or flight, people pissing you
off, because those situations show up to show you what's in your unconscious that you're holding
(15:56):
onto that's ready to be released. And I've done a fuck ton of crying since 2020. And I really did
not want to have to do any of it this week. And so I said, no healing unless absolutely necessary.
And there were a couple times actually that I get got triggered a little bit. And so I dealt with it.
But I, for the most part, again, just radically present radically with myself with the people,
(16:22):
just being open to the experience. So those were sort of my higher level intentions. A couple of
the other ones that I wanted to experience. So the first one, ease, go with the flow trusting the
higher order of everything. And so with that, how that showed up, one ease, go with the flow. So
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there were a few times when it rained, when our activities got canceled, or they got moved around.
And so one time, I did get upset about it, because it was supposed to be on my birthday, we're
supposed to go to the beach and the weather was not good enough to go to the beach. And so the night
before when they canceled the beach, I sat in my bed and I said, you know, I'm going to let myself
(17:04):
be pissed about this for just a little bit, because I'm allowed to be pissed. I came here to go to the
beach, I don't get to go to the beach on my birthday. And then it was out of my body. And so when you
allow the feeling, just allow it without judging it, then you can move on. And so that's what I did.
But for the most part, we had other things get canceled. And I went with it. When there was no
(17:28):
power, I went with it, trusting the higher order of everything. So other things when we were riding
horses, when we were in cars with no seatbelts, just trusting that I was safe the whole time.
As if you listen to the first episode of this series, I believe that there's no accidents for
anything. And so if there was supposed to be an accident, like it was going to happen, me worrying
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about there being an accident and it's going to change it, or me worrying about there being an
accident, there's no accident, like it just means I spend the whole time worrying. And so I just
trusted like if something is supposed to happen to hurt me or whatever, like it will happen,
but I don't need to worry about that. So I trusted the higher order of everything that was going on.
Because I got kicked by a horse in my leg. And it was probably in the best possible place I
(18:20):
could have gotten kicked, because it was in the meaty part of my thigh and the side of my thigh.
It was so close to my patella, man, I would have been so messed up had I gotten my patella.
But again, I trust I trust that there's a reason for all of it. And so all of that, go with the
flow, trusting the higher order of everything. Did I do it perfectly? No. But did I do it
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way better than I would have? Had I not set the intention? Yes, yes, I did. The second one
that I wanted to experience, abundance, monetary and otherwise. This is an interesting one because
Cuba used to be very abundant. We got the history and starting about, and I'm so bad with history
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and dates, guys, this, I find history now fascinating. I hated it in high school because
it was all about, oh, in 1972, this happened in 1984, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I can't remember
dates for the life of me. And I know I'm speaking that into existence. But that's just been my
experience. And so roughly around the 20s, I believe when prohibition was happening in the
(19:24):
United States, people fled to Cuba because they could drink in Cuba, they could party,
they could gamble, like Cuba was open to all of that. And so there was a lot of money poured into
Cuba. And if you go to Havana, you see remnants of that money, the architecture is stunning.
It is stunning. And it is sad that it has not been kept up in many places. But you just look at it
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and you just imagine like what it must have been like in that time period. Because then in the 60s,
embargo, money stopped coming in and it's been a different story ever since. So I say that because
you go there and it's very visible that it is no longer like there's pockets of abundance. And even
our guide would say like, we don't know where the government gets the money. Somehow they get the
(20:10):
money. So there must be something going on. So there's pockets of abundance. But it is very clear
that there is no longer a ton of abundance in Cuba. And yet abundance means more than money.
Right. And so when you look around, we also experience an abundance of food, which we almost
felt bad about. Because again, in a place where it's hard for them to find food, they were serving
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us. They were over serving us for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner. And so there was certainly
an abundance. There was an abundance of like care and community. And so abundance is more
than just money. It's a feeling. It's having more than you need. It's just this feeling of being
connected to something that's bigger than you. And there were feelings of monetary abundance,
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because things are quote unquote cheaper there than they are in the United States. So a perfectly
crafted mojito might be the equivalent of like three or four US dollars, where in the US, I mean,
it's a lot more than that these days, meals with a nice meal and a drink, maybe $25. Right. Maybe not
even souvenirs, cheap. And so monetarily wise, there wasn't a feeling of abundance because we
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came from the frame of the United States. And then just a really silly thing, the exchange rate. So
the first night we were told bring $200 to exchange. And so I brought two paper $100 bills,
and I got back a stack of money that was probably close to an inch thick. Two $100 bills was the
equivalent of 54,000 Cuban pesos, 54,000. And so I had a stack of 50s and 500s. And damn, that makes you,
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that makes you feel abundant, even if it's like a false sense of abundance. So a little silly, but
again, that's where when you open it up to the universe and you let the universe surprise you,
you're like, okay, this is how we're feeling abundance. The next one I want to do experience
with gratitude and man, just seeing the people and their conditions and how they live and they
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still live and they're happy. It gives you a really sense of gratitude for what you have.
Not only that, but some of the biggest things of gratitude I came back for were just like water,
having such easy access to water. So their water gets rationed, they have storage containers on
their roof. So every time I flushed a toilet or took a shower, I had to think is this going to
(22:46):
be the last of their water. And so we took quick showers, we were happy to have showers, right?
And so I was really, really grateful for something so simple when I came back and just so grateful
for the people and everything that they offered, they just have such a giving spirit and just
(23:06):
being able to be part of that giving spirit just filled me with gratitude as well. The next thing
I wrote down was connection to myself, nature, others and something bigger. And so this is probably
its own podcast too, but I feel like most of us were lacking true connection and it's not necessarily
to other people. Most of us when we're looking for connection from others, typically the connection
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we're looking for is to ourselves and to God source the universe, whatever you want to call it.
And so for me, connection starts within, it starts with the biggest connection,
and then you bring it out when you feel connected to the truth of who you are,
then you can feel connected to those other things. And so I did feel more connected to myself.
My sense of self is not my skin, it's not my body, right? It's the energy that wants to come
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through my body. And so I felt connected, I felt like I could joke, I could laugh, I could be happy
and just be myself, right? And so I felt connected to myself, I felt connected to nature. There were
times we were out in nature, we were riding horses, or we might have been going for a walk.
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So there were certainly, and that was an everyday Havana, lots of buildings, lots of concrete,
but even still they had plants all around. And so there was still that connection to nature,
connection to others. So shout out to my roommate Darcy and some of the women that I was able to
connect with deeply on that trip, either part of our group or even miniature connections with
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people that I couldn't even talk to because I don't know Spanish, shame on me for not even looking
at a word of Spanish before I went, right? But I realized there was one night after the pig roast
where dancing was happening and I'm like, you know what, you don't need language to connect
through dance and through music. Like you can just connect. And so that was really special to me.
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And then of course, something bigger, just knowing just all these experiences, just knowing that
there's something bigger that I'm connected to that's working with me was really profound for me.
The next thing, wild, raw and unscripted. So again, that was just me wanting to be out without my
quote unquote inner confines of my current life and just be me. And even though I felt that,
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like, most of the time, most of the moments, there were certainly a few, few moments where I
really put my hair down. So one of them when we were riding horses, I've always wanted, I hate when
you're like, doododododo, like riding in the line. And I've always wanted to take a horse fast.
(25:48):
And in Cuba, there's no rules, you're not signing any legal documents saying that you're not going
to sue anyone because it doesn't matter, right? So I said, can I take this horse go fast? And
they're like, yeah, yeah, whatever. They probably didn't know what I was saying. But we all got
there and people are getting off their horses and going to the farm. And I took mine back out.
And I turned it around towards the farm. And I was like, all right, here we go. And it took off.
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And it was way faster than I thought it would go. And it was a little scarier than I thought it
would be. And then right in our way was a mud puddle. So we kind of went around and this was
like trusting the higher order of things. I'm like, all right, I just got to trust that this
horse knows what it's doing and just not try to control the horse around this mud puddle, right?
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And so I just took a breath and I just held on, held on really tight. And then I came
barreling in and they're like, whoa, whoa, did you meant to do that? I'm like, yeah, yeah,
I meant to do that. Holy smokes, right? So that was, felt a little wild, probably a little stupid.
But you know what? Every everything was okay. I had planned on trying the tobacco and the cigars.
(26:53):
And so certainly that's part of the experience. And so I tried it. It wasn't my favorite feeling.
It was very, I reached out to a shaman friend before and I said, what can I expect with tobacco?
Because me, I was looking at it as a plant medicine, which it is a plant and it probably is a medicine
for some people. And I was hoping I could be out. I my joke was everyone will be in the barn playing
(27:16):
cards, playing dominoes. And I'll be on tobacco and I'll be out in the field like dancing with
aliens or something silly like that, like in my little fairy rave, right? That was not my experience.
It was very, she said it's going to be very grounding. And who I will tell you, for me grounding,
how it showed up for me, I was puffing away, puffing away and then they're passing around
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because that farm also makes rum. So little shots of rum, some puffing away, so my cigar doesn't go
out and taking little shots of rum, feeling nothing, nothing, nothing. And then all of a sudden, whoosh,
my body just gets super heavy. And I just felt like I needed to just sit still and not move.
And so I did what I could. We did the rest of our little demonstration in the tobacco hut.
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And then with all the strength I could muster, I walked myself out to the little tent where we
were going to have lunch and I just sat there and I didn't care who came up to me, whatever. There
was a cat that came up to me, but I could not move. And so that was me being wild and raw,
I suppose, was just trying the tobacco, trying the rum, deciding I didn't really like it,
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which I kind of expected. I probably wasn't going to like it. I know when you do a lot of healing
through your body, the vibration of your body changes. Like this is why I can't really drink
alcohol much anymore is because alcohol is a low vibrational, like it is a toxin, right? And my
body just, it doesn't feel good anymore. I used to feel good. It used to be really fun back when I
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didn't have, I feel like, and this is a total side tangent, but for me, when I think about alcohol,
it was just a gateway to connecting with myself and to letting my guard down on who I thought I
was and the judgments I had toward myself and just having fun. And now that I've learned how to do
that without alcohol, it's like, I don't really need alcohol anymore, right? And so I tried it
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as I was in Cuba and I wanted to try the whole experience. I didn't love it, but whatever.
The, let's see, there was the night of dancing. Just dancing again. I didn't really have a drink
that day. I just let myself dance how I felt like I wanted to dance. That same night, I was
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beautifully surprised with the birthday cake and apparently it's tradition where they rub
the frosting all over your face. And so I just let it happen. Just like, all right, let's just go
with it. They're going to rub frosting on my face. Let's go with it. My girls want to lick
frosting off my face. We're going to go with it. Like, I just went with it. Go with the flow.
Raw wild unscripted. The final thing I did was I got a tattoo. I guess I can show it because
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some of you will watch this on video if you haven't seen it already. So it's right on my
upper arm right in front and it's a horseshoe with the Cuban flower and it says Cuba. And for me,
the horseshoe, I'd already decided that I wanted something to commemorate my trip because I already
knew it was going to be a special trip. Then I get kicked by a horse and like, there we go, horseshoe.
(30:14):
It's perfect. It's a great story. But it's also like I like country music and so it kind of gives
that country vibe which I realize afterwards. But it also, for me, being right there right in front,
just as bold as it is, I look down and it's this reminder for me of how I felt raw, wild, and
unscripted. And so like to bring the essence of the energy back to me. And so it was crazy. People
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are like, you got tattoo in Cuba? I'm like, yeah, my tour guide had tattoos all over his arms and
his arms hadn't fallen off. So I'm sure it was fine and it's been fine. Barely any issues since
getting the tattoo. So that was raw, wild, and unscripted. My next one, freedom and joy. And I
think it's probably kind of obvious based on some of the things I've talked about, just feeling
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freedom from just the confines and the heaviness of day to day life and just feeling joy. Like
when people surprise me with birthday cake, feeling joy, feeling the joy in the moments,
in the food, in the experience of seeing all the old architecture, like there was just so much joy
everywhere. And I just felt like just in a way that I haven't allowed myself to feel that in a while.
(31:29):
Surprises and magic around every corner. So I won't say in hindsight, I mean, I do think if you just
look at life as magical, like a lot of it was magical. Two things in particular do stand out,
like above and beyond is uber magical. So one of them was when we were in Vignales,
which was out in the country, we didn't have Wi-Fi at our casa. And again, we had no electricity.
(31:54):
But even when there was electricity, there wasn't really Wi-Fi. And so I had to quick plug in when
we went out to dinner at the restaurants. And so there was one night where I was able to get
messages from my parents. And I just checked in. And one of the messages I got from my husband from
the day before was, can you please call me? And I was like, oh, shit, hope everything's okay. That's
(32:15):
not the message you want to get when you can't communicate with people. So I just sent back,
you know, I was everything, okay, let me know, I'm here, but I'm not going to have Wi-Fi again.
And so then the next day, I still hadn't heard back from him. And I'd heard back from my mom.
And so I knew the messages were getting through. And so I was like, shit, I wonder, like, did
something happen? I knew he was sick before I left. And so I was just worrying a little bit
(32:39):
about back home, like what is going on? Why didn't he communicate? And so when we were in our casa,
no Wi-Fi that I was connected to, I got a message through from my daughter. I'm like,
okay, so they're okay, they're fine. And I literally cannot explain how that happened.
I think we had power at this point. But again, when I checked my Wi-Fi connection,
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I was not connected to anything. So I have no idea how that came through. I believe that it was just
the universe sending me some magic. So that way I knew that they were okay. So that was magic number one.
Magic number two, in Vignales, we had different casas that we were staying at. And so my casa,
there were six of us, and then there were like two to three scattered throughout the other casas,
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there were 14 women total. And again, no power. Somehow my casa, even with no power, we had water.
And so I could flush a toilet, I could run a sink, and I could take a shower, even though it was not
supposed to be a warm shower. And I'm going through my head, of course, my engineering background,
I'm like, how does this work without electricity? And so the best I could come up with was gravity,
(33:50):
because the water was on the roof, and the water came down. And other women did not have that luxury.
Some of them, with no power, they ran out of water. Or with power, they ran out of water. So I never
ran out of water the entire time. And somehow, even more magical, I finally, when I came back
from the horse farm, was like, I need a shower. I'm disgusting. I took a shower, and it was warm. It
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was not hot. It was kind of like it had been baking in the sun for a while, kind of warm.
But I never had to take a cold shower the whole week. And again, some of the women
had to take cold showers. So those were my magic. And again, surprise this magic around every corner.
Like everything just I approached it was surprise and delight. But those were the two things that
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really stuck up and above and beyond for me. And then finally, the last intention, rest, energy,
and vitality. And so before I went like for months, before I went to Cuba, I would just check in with
my body and be like, All right, what's going on? And be like, I'm tired. I'm tired. And not all of
that is because of my life. Like being a mom, I think I don't know if you ever truly get rest
(35:00):
when you're a mom of little kids. But also, there's been so many energy upgrades happening to our
bodies that our bodies are getting a little fried right now. And so this is the reason self care,
Lee Harris and his guides will say it's not a luxury, it's a necessity. That's because our nervous
systems, not only by life by chaos of the world, but by the light coming on the planet that is
(35:24):
helping with our ascension. And so I just wanted to be able to rest when I wanted to rest. But
also I know the energy and vitality when you just let that run through your body without judgment,
without stopping it, like that revitalizes you too. And so I did totally feel energetic, revitalize,
like I laid down when I needed to lay down. And I came back, some of that tired feeling came back
(35:51):
when I came home. And so I'm working through like what does that mean and how can I
shift what's going on in my life so that way I'm not so tired all the time. But I totally felt like
vital, energized, rested when I was there. So those are my intentions. What do I desire to
experience? And again, based on what I wanted to feel through my body and that necessarily like
(36:14):
specific things in the outside world, a couple of the other things that I wanted to share in terms
of intentions, intentionality that were not written down. One of them was eating the food as if it
couldn't hurt me. So I went there, we had to take special water bottles. So that way, you know,
(36:36):
they, if you go to Mexico, they joke about Montezuma's revenge, like you get the bug and you get the
bug and you get the poo poo's right and I had to I took special antibiotics just in case that happened.
And then the first night I'm there, I'm like, Oh, I'm getting tacos, should I be eating tacos
because I'm eating them with my hands and are my hands unclean and oh, the water and all the drinks
and all the ice and all the things is like, you know, I'm going to make myself sick, because you
(37:00):
attract what you fear. And so if I act like the food can hurt me, then there's a high possibility
that it will hurt me. And so I decided, you know, I'm just going to act as if the food can't hurt
me. And again, I wasn't stupid about it. I still brush my teeth with bottled water. I still drank
out of my water bottle. But there was a time when a guy cut open a coconut and rinse it in water
and gave it to me to eat. I'm like, All right, I'm just going to eat it as if it's fine. I'm just
(37:24):
going to eat this food. I always use hand sanitizer and wipes, especially because there were some
situations without houses. And I do not like, I don't like our houses. I don't like porta potty's,
but I can tolerate them if I can wash my hands in soap and water. But even this one place,
no soap and water. So I had wipes, I had hand sanitizer, and I said, you know, we're just
(37:45):
going to trust that that's enough. And I didn't get sick the whole time. And others did get sick.
I can't say if it's from the food. I also do believe that had I gotten sick, there would have been a
higher order for it. And so again, I go in with what I intend to feel I intend to be healthy.
But then I'm also going to go with the flow if the opposite happens. And this was the second
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part there was a day when I was starting to feel a rumbly and my tumbling. And other people were
starting to go down, it was sort of midweek and other people are starting to get head colds and
other things. I was like, this is not happening to me. And so I spent five minutes before we went
out to dinner, just in this rocking chair, just visualizing myself being healthy. Because I'd
also been reading about parallel realities and how you can like jump from one reality to the other
(38:34):
based on your intention and the way you feel and what you focus on. So I'm like, I'm going to jump
myself into a reality where I'm not feeling sick. And so I spent five minutes doing that before I
went to dinner. And then I still went to dinner feeling a little queasy. And it could have been
queasy or it could have been hunger, I wasn't sure. But once I ate, I was fine and it never came back.
(38:58):
And so I didn't go with the story of, Oh, I'm getting sick, I'm getting sick. I went with the
story of, Nope, I'm not getting sick. And actually, I don't even like the term getting sick, because
the universe still, still here sick and it focuses on sick. For me, I was focusing on healthy, well
feeling good. And then the last one. And I know this is probably getting long and you're like,
Oh, she almost done the last one, getting back through customs. So again, coming back into the
(39:24):
United States. So I was coming with rum and cigars, Cuban cigars, which are illegal to sell here,
honey, from the farm, all of which I had bought legally. So with my visa, our visa was called
support of the Cuban people. So we were allowed to buy those as long as it was directly from the
(39:45):
farmers. So you can't buy those from government run stores and then bring them back in the country.
I had to buy them directly from the farmers and there were up to 50 cigars up to two bottles of
rum. And so there were limits too. And so it was under or at the limits. And so everything I did
was legal. But I knew they still could question me, right? And so I imagined going through customs
(40:07):
again, like a bold bitch, like, I'm totally good. Everything's going to be fine. I imagined it.
And what happened when we got close, I was with one other girl, there was only one other person
on my flight, the others took other flights. And right before we got there, she's like, you go
ahead of me, I got to get my papers out. So I went ahead of her and I went up to this agent. And I
(40:28):
swear it could not have been easier. It was almost like, that's it. Like, did I really just go through
customs? Because he said, where are you coming back from Cuba? Do you have anything to declare?
I said, no, because I didn't like legally based on the list, I had nothing to declare. Are you
bringing anything back with you? I said, yep, souvenirs. Because again, that's what they were.
That's what I was told to say. And then he was asking me about Cuba and he was smiling. He was
(40:51):
like, how was it? Did you enjoy it? How did you get around? Do you speak Spanish? And he had these
questions. And then finally I asked him, like, are you interested in going? Are you able to go
someday? And he's like, no, I'd get fired for my job. I was like, oh, yeah, your Homeland Security,
probably not going to be going to Cuba. But it was like a friendly experience. And then I got
(41:12):
through, I was like, again, I pick up my bag, and then we just drop it off. And that was it. And the
girl who I probably would have had her agent had she not switched spots with me, she said,
she was told by the agent, if you have rum in your bag, we're going to dump it in front of you.
It's like, oh, somehow that didn't happen. She made it home with her stuff. And then I heard from
(41:36):
others that were on a different flight. One of the girls did get questioned and she did get
her things taken away. And so again, it's not necessarily the outer world, I believe anyway.
It's what's going on in your inner world that also dictates what's going on. And she was already mad
at the trip. She was already hating Cuba. And so for me, this is just like, what she was focusing on
(42:00):
was not enjoying the trip. And so this is she got that reinforced back to her. And I mean, no offense
when I say that it's just me, like, my perspective of what went on, where I was able to get through
so easily. And then I gave them my bag, they didn't even inspect my bag. And so the whole time,
like, are they going to inspect it without me? Like, I don't even know my bag made it through the
(42:23):
rum and the cigars. And then I said, Nope, I'm just going to imagine that I get to the airport,
Madison, and I pick up my bag and it's still heavy. And I did, I picked up my bag, it was still heavy,
I got home, I still had everything. And it was amazing. So that got pretty long. But again,
I wanted to highlight all the magic like magic is available to you in your life. If you're open,
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open to it. If you are willing to experience it. And if you know how to look for it, because you
have to look for it, it's already there in your life, I promise you. But typically, we don't
notice it if we're too in our brains. So when you can learn how to look for the magic, it is there,
it is all around. So hopefully this episode, just open your eyes to what is possible. When you start
(43:15):
to play with energy and intentionality and visualization. And again, then you just have
to believe it in your body and act as if it's true, right, just walk through customs act as if it's
true. So that is my experience. And I'm going to do something, let's see, this will come out in
February. So it'll still be time in February, I'm offering free, I'm calling them dream activations.
(43:39):
So if you've got something going on that you need a little help with, or you just want to talk to
someone about, then book a session, it's free, it's not a sales call, I'll leave the link below.
February only right now, I'm just testing them out to see how they go. But let's talk through
them because what I've learned, and this is sort of an aside of the topic today. But what I've learned
(44:06):
is, if you don't feel like your dream is meant for you, if you don't feel like you're worthy of your
dream, or if you're deserving of whatever it is, you're not going to do the work to go after it.
It's like, once you feel it in your body, though, once it's awake in your body, then you're like,
damn, yes, yes, I want more of this. And so I want to help you activate that in your body.
(44:28):
So I'm going to do them for free. 30 minutes just for funsies, just to see how they go.
Everything in my business right now is an experiment. While I see what's six, what doesn't.
So if you listen to this in February 2025, and that is something that you would like to book with me,
then go below and grab that time. And I will be back next week.
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