July 10, 2023 • 39 mins
Burnout can be a painful and confusing experience, but it can also lead to powerful self-discovery and growth. Join us as we chat with Portia, founder of the We Experience, about the importance of self-care and finding balance in our lives. We explore her wellness journey that began with meditation and spending time in nature, which helped her find clarity and balance. Portia opens up about her own experience with burnout and how dedicating a full year to her healing journey ultimately led her to rediscover herself.
Listen in to gain valuable insights on how to maximize your health, wellness, and life.
Learn more about Portia here and follow her on IG https://www.instagram.com/the.we.experience/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is brought to you by Female Alliance Media,
by Women for Women.
Welcome to the Balance andBliss Podcast.
I'm your host, Andrea Mondu, athree-time published author,
speaker and a lifestyletransformation coach who
believes everyone should begiven the gift of knowing how to
live their lives feelinghealthy and empowered.
(00:20):
Things like moving your bodyregularly and feeling it well,
taking care of your mind,setting boundaries, practicing
self and body acceptance,personal growth, manifestation
and everything in between.
Wellness is not linear and it'snot just one thing.
It expands into so many areasAnd on this show we're going to
(00:41):
talk about just that.
We're all striving to live alittle more healthy and a little
more well, But what does thateven mean?
My goal is to help you see thatyou can move from the mundane
to the magic when it comes toliving aligned and fulfilled,
And by tuning in each week youcan be assured you'll leave with
nuggets of wisdom that you canimplement into your day to day,
(01:04):
like right now, to help youmaximize your health, wellness
and your life.
Now let's dive in.
Portia, I'm really, reallyexcited to chat today, But
before we chat, did you get yourair conditioning fixed?
I did get my air conditioningfixed.
Oh my gosh, We're recording inthe middle of I guess they would
(01:26):
call this heat wave in Ontario,And today it was like what?
32?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
At least 32 degrees Celsius, And you didn't have air
conditioning and that wouldjust be like you and your poor
dog It was hard, and I bake, sotoday I actually bake in the
morning, so it was verystressful to figure out how, if
my air conditioner wasn't goingto be fixed today, how I was
(01:53):
going to cool my house after myoven being on, and so that was a
little bit nerve wracking.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So did you come up with a solution?
No, that my air conditioningwould be fixed.
Oh my gosh.
I was just going to say likeI'd be so curious of what this
solution would be to like I'mthinking like big industrial
fans and like something to blowthe hot air out just for more
hot air to come in, likerealistically, but prices
(02:22):
averted, and you and I both havebig dogs, so like this
temperature, like today, we wentout for a W I can't even say
the full word because she'sright here, but we went out for
a W and like she was reallyexcited to come and I was like
dude, you don't want to come onthis because it's so hot, like
you will not survive, it's sotrue, oh my gosh.
(02:45):
Anyway, so I really wanted tohave you come on the show and I
will let you introduce yourselfto everybody who's like who is
this person that she's talkingto?
But I really I think I reallywanted to have you on.
Well, a number of differentreasons.
When we chatted a couple ofweeks ago, i just really enjoyed
our conversation, but also Ijust, you know, a lot of people
(03:09):
feel like when it comes towellness and when it comes to
like being self aware.
It's like once you've figuredit out, then you don't have any,
like blips or dips, or likeonce you figured it out, then
everything's fine, and there'sno possible way that you can be
in a position again where you'relike, oh my gosh, how did I let
myself get here?
(03:29):
But I think that that actuallyhappens for a lot more of us
than maybe people like to talkabout, and I think it's actually
more realistic to assume thatthere's going to potentially be
really big ebbs and flows in theways that we are aware, how
we're taking care of ourselves,all those sorts of things.
So, anyway, that's like why Iwanted to have you come on the
(03:50):
show, but I will hand the micover to you to tell everybody
who you are and introduceyourself a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I'm Portia.
I always struggle with these somuch.
I'm Portia.
I'm the founder of the WeExperience, i guess, first and
foremost, and that is reallyjust a place for women just to
land softly and be exactly whothey are in the moment that they
are in.
We're all about celebrating andsupporting one another And our
(04:21):
page is really about, you know,being seen and heard and loved
without having to change, and sothat's kind of, i guess that's
what I guess, what I do Inregards to me.
I married, i have a daughterwho's 15.
I have a dog, and I'm currentlyhave four little baby chicks
living in my house And I'm superlike, just for me, as who I am.
(04:45):
I'm just super passionate aboutmeditating.
I'm really passionate about,you know, finding hobbies
outside of work and outside ofyour business.
So if I'm not in the way youcan typically find me doing a
puzzle, i make sourdough forfriends and family and, you know
, walking and meditating andbeing outside is kind of my
(05:06):
happy place.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Listen, your bread looks so good.
I'm just like can I eat throughthis screen?
I wish I lived closer to newmarket because I would be like
hook me up, you're new marketright Just a bit north of there.
Yeah, yeah, okay, i was likeI'd be like hook me up with some
bread.
Okay, so you said that you'rereally into meditating and being
(05:32):
in nature and all those sortsof pieces which are like so
great in terms of taking care ofourselves.
But why don't you like wheredid your wellness journey kind
of start?
or like, how you know, take usback a little bit to like Portia
, however many years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, so Portia's been through a lot, a lot of
different journeys.
So I would say my wellnessjourney probably started when I
took my yoga teacher trainingand my daughter was probably
four at the time, so, and shewas going into kindergarten or
her second year of kindergarten,and so, yeah, it was about 10
years ago.
I kind of took on thatadventure And the main reason
(06:13):
why I did it is I was strugglingwith anxiety with my daughter
going to school.
I felt like I was a little bitout of control.
I didn't have a lot of controlwhen she was at school and I
found myself feeling reallyanxious.
So that is where my journeybegan, as a yoga teacher,
trainer and then kind of divinginto the spiritual realm.
It was something that I was notfamiliar with and it really
(06:37):
intrigued me and I felt very athome in that space And that was
really the jumping off point.
I wasn't very much a personthat liked to do a lot of
movement or anything like that,and it really started to get the
ball rolling and really startedto open my eyes and open my
minds to different things.
From there I became a Reikipractitioner and I have my level
(06:59):
two Reiki And that kind ofopened up another door.
It kind of opened up thisdifferent form of wellness that
I was not necessarily aware of,like these energies that are in
our bodies, like how amazing isthat It is so amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
It's so amazing And like one of the things that I
find that I'm constantly talkingabout, because I think that
like people forget, or we'vebeen inundated for so long with
like diet, culture, mentality,is that like wellness is so much
more than just like what we'reeating and how we're moving our
bodies.
Like those two things areincredibly important.
(07:34):
They fuel our vessel and theylike obviously take care of our
mental health and stuff too,especially movement, but like
spirituality and like tuninginto energies and like being in
tune with our body in like aspiritual way is also a part of
it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, and so it kind of really started to guide me
And I had an in-home spin studio, which was absolutely amazing.
I did that for three years.
It was so cool.
It was one of those thingswhere I convinced my husband to
do this over a few beverages andI went and got my certification
(08:12):
and literally two months laterI bought bikes, set up my
basement and we were riding.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh my God, it was in, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It started in April.
first class was June.
I think I started with twoclasses a week.
By September, i think, i got tofive And then, shortly after
that, i think I was teaching 10spin costs a week.
It was insanity, but it waslike the best kind of insanity
because I was surrounded by somany amazing people.
I got to meet people from verydifferent walks of life and got
(08:42):
to hear their stories andconnect with them on such an
intimate level, because we're inmy basement There's like seven
of us crammed in, sweatingtogether, breathing together,
jamming out.
So it was such a coolexperience.
And from there I actually when Istarted that business it was
called the Den and I had thislike pretty cool social media
(09:02):
platform and people wouldconstantly be like Portia, can
you help me?
Like why does your platformlook so good?
Like what are you doing?
And I was like I really don'tknow.
I have a background inmarketing.
Like I kind of just have an eyefor it.
I really don't know what I'mdoing, but they're like can you
help me?
And eventually I was like okay,i've had enough people asking
me for help around social mediawebsite design that I was like
(09:24):
maybe this is something that Ineed to pursue, and just at the
end of, i would say, 2019 iswhen I kind of started taking on
the social media manager kindof adventure And it started off
as such an amazing journey.
And I think it was amazingbecause I had the balance
between the Den and the socialmedia, so I really couldn't
(09:46):
fully dive into the social mediaworld And it was a place that I
wasn't necessarily familiarwith Before social media.
I very rarely showed up online,like I had an Instagram account
but maybe posted a picture fourtimes a year.
I don't even think I postedanything in a story And it was
mainly just for the Den.
It had its own page And onceagain, i was not even on there.
(10:07):
The premise of the Den is verysimilar to the we experienced,
where I'm kind of a little bitin the background and you as the
community get to shine firstAnd I'll kind of just pop out in
the back, and so I just neverreally showed up there.
And then, when I got into thissocial media world, it really
started to grab hold of me Andit took time.
(10:29):
It took, i would say, about ayear and a half before it really
got its nails into me And Istarted to really feel the
effects of external validationimposter syndrome and really
started to actually lose myselfduring this incredible journey.
And it's crazy because thosethat watch the journey outside,
(10:52):
looking in it, looked like I washaving a freaking blast.
It looked like my world wasjust turned upside down and I
was surrounded by all of thisabundance, surrounded by all of
this like amazingness, and mytrajectory was cool, like I just
skyrocketed in such a shortperiod of time And it caught up
(11:13):
to me very, very quickly.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So you're a Reiki master, you're a yoga teacher,
you have a spin studio andyou're spinning.
Were you the only instructor inyour studio?
Yeah, I don't know why I'musing air quotes?
because it's your.
You know why I'm using airquotes is because I call my
basement my podcast studio.
(11:38):
And so when you're like bikes inmy basement, i'm like okay, but
I mean that is still very mucha legitimate business, as is my
basement as my podcast studio,so I'm going to stop using air
quotes about it, butnevertheless you're teaching 10
spin classes a week, like you'reseemingly, like you said, from
the outside really taking goodcare of yourself.
You have all of these liketuning into yourself tools.
(12:01):
Then you dive deep into thissocial media management and you
burnt out pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, So I sold the den about a year after I got
into the social media.
I knew that I couldn't balancethe two anymore And with
everything that kind of happenedin the world, it just wasn't
necessarily the same vibe And,to be honest, after not having
people in my house for a goodsolid nine months, it was very,
(12:29):
very hard to kind of open thatdoor again.
Like I got to reclaim mybasement again And so it was
just like it was really reallyhard to be like let's do this
again.
So I decided to sell it andthen dive deep into the social
media world and start creating avery small boutique style
agency.
And, yeah, about a year into it, I would say not even that much
(12:54):
.
Well, I would say after sellingmy business, I would say about a
year into it, after selling theden, I really started to feel
the burnout.
I was feeling very isolated andlonely in it.
I was once a person that wassurrounded by seven people
multiple times a week and justwas like ingesting their energy
(13:17):
and it completely stopped And Iwas sitting in my office alone
five days a week.
I was working longer hours thanI ever had before.
It took a toll in such adifferent way.
Like spin yoga, It's a physicaltoll and it's a mental and
spiritual toll, but at the sametime it's very rewarding.
Where I always found socialmedia to be the reward of it was
(13:38):
very short and it was never thesame Like when I go teach a
yoga class.
I'm energized after that.
But sometimes, getting off ofsocial media after being on it
for like two hours or even anhour, I'm so mentally drained
And it just it really reallycaught up to me.
I didn't have a greatexperience with a client.
(13:59):
I think that really kind of wasthe straw that kind of broke
the camel's back, that reallyopened my eyes to the reality of
it all.
And it was just kind of inthose moments where I just kind
of decided that I need to kindof take a few steps back and
reassess the whole situation.
And at the end of 2021 was whenI dedicated a full year to my
(14:21):
healing journey.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
My rediscovery journey.
I should say Yeah, totally, andI remember like the key things,
because, you know, some peoplewill say I used to enjoy this
and then I found I wasn'tenjoying this anymore, or I used
to like be this way, and nowyou know, people were saying to
me, the people closest to mewere like oh, like we noticed
that you're not the same personanymore.
(14:43):
What have you like?
was there anything that kind oflike?
you said you had thatinteraction with the client, but
how did you like?
was there anything you couldpinpoint?
I guess it was like oh my gosh,like something has to change at
the end of 2021 to then startthat rediscovery.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah.
So I was talking with myhusband in the garage and I
would say I'm a very connectedperson with myself, i'm very in
tuned and over the burnout Islowly started to lose myself.
I started to lose thatconnection and drift further and
further away of who I was andwhat my goals were and what my
definitions of success andhappiness were.
(15:19):
And I remember having aconversation with my husband,
and I don't even know why itstarted, but I just looked at
him and said you know what?
I'm happy, but I've beenhappier and I want to be happier
, like I'm done living the waythat I'm living.
I need something else.
And that was kind of thekickstart, i think.
(15:39):
Verbally saying it, i basicallytold the universe like, take, i
don't have the courage right nowto eliminate any of the things
on my plate, can you do it forme?
And in a matter of, honestly, amonth and a half, a lot was
eliminated and it was hard toswallow because, at the same
time, as much as I wanted mybusiness to continue to succeed
(15:59):
and have this like up, like up,going momentum, it, it was
needed.
It was really, really needed.
At the time.
I needed, you know, the punchin the gut just to be like okay,
portia, you have to slow down.
You cannot continue to move atthe rate that you're moving,
because You know you're notgonna be happy in two months
(16:20):
right.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So like what was the first thing you did then?
or like how did you start?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I guess, other than the universe doing some of the
work for you, i I Started to getsome books and I thought maybe
some like self-help books orpersonal development books would
help.
I found that to be veryoverwhelming.
I was at a state where, once Ikind of fully accepted where I
(16:46):
was at, kind of everythingstarted to shut down.
My body started to shut downlike I was eating all of the
right things, i was taking allof the right supplements, i was
working out six days a week, ihad a personal trainer.
You know, you know, accordingto the books, i was completely
happy and I was like no more, nomore, i'm done, i'm done.
(17:06):
And listen to me, yeah, and, andone of the key indicators was I
had a really low heart rate.
So I got an on.
My husband was so persistent onme getting this Apple watch and
I finally got it.
And then it was like Constantlyalarming me when I would wake
up because my heart rate wouldgo below 30 beats a minute and I
was like Almost dead when I wassleeping and and it would
(17:30):
slowly creep into my life.
I was very lightheaded, and sosome of these subtle symptoms
were kind of showing up, and Sothe first things I did was tried
to get some self-help books andkind of figure out what was
going on in my mind, but thatwas way too overwhelming.
I was not in the place to takeon anything.
My mind was so foggy andcongested, my body was so tired.
I just it was like I wasdepressed, but it was like my
(17:55):
body was depressed, like my mindwas there and functioning
because my cortisol was so high,but my body was.
It was depressed, it didn'twant to do the things that it
wanted to do, like I was workingout If for 50 minutes, and then
, once I fully accepted theburnout, i couldn't even walk
for 10 minutes.
Wow and so it just was so crazy,i think, after I learned that
(18:16):
the self-help books and thepersonal development books were
not necessarily gonna work, istarted to lean on things that I
knew would help me feel better,and so, in December of 2021, i
dedicated my.
I dedicated 30 days tomeditation, and So I started
with my Peloton app and Istarted with like five-minute
meditations.
(18:37):
Ross Rayburn, he's the best onthere If you're looking for like
a nice spiritual guy.
I'm Peloton, but I started withmy Peloton app.
I just sat in my office, youknow, after my day, and just
started meditating.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
What made you sorry, i'm just gonna interrupt because
I'm curious like, what had youmeditated previously before?
I guess you taught yoga andstuff, but did you ever meditate
yourself?
and if not, then what like madeyou think I should try this?
I?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Try, i've never meditated before Teaching yoga.
Like you get a little bit ofmeditation kind of at the
beginning and kind of at the endin the show.
But it's not necessarily thesame thing.
I I tried 30 days of gratitudeto start and It was really
really hard to find gratitudewhen I was so angry.
(19:25):
Mmm it was really, really hardto be grateful for the things
that were happening in my lifewhen I was so angry at my body.
I was angry at myself, and so Ireally don't know what led me
to meditation.
I I Honestly I think, Intuition.
I think I saw it on my Pelotonapp and thought what, what could
go wrong, like what would bethe harm?
and just starting at fiveminutes and and going from there
(19:48):
.
And I had a With my agency, ihad a small team, and so I
tossed it out to them and justsaid if you guys want to join me
, join me on my 30 days ofmeditation.
And I felt like that kind ofhelped me a little bit.
I don't necessarily know ifthey ever did it, it didn't
really even matter if they diddo it, but it was just kind of
like come join me on this littlejourney.
(20:09):
And and, yeah, it just slowlyblossomed from there and I
started with five minutes.
After two weeks, i think, i wasup to ten minutes and then I
slowly started to crave itbecause it was the only time
where I could sit still withmyself, even though my mind was
consistently racing, even thoughI was super fidgety and wanted
to get out of it.
The moment I sat down, i alwaysfelt significantly better after
(20:32):
the ten minutes, after the fiveminutes, and so the 30 days
ended and then I didn't want tostop.
So 30 days led to 60 days,which led to three months, which
led to six months, which led to365 days of meditating, and My
practice kind of has ebb andflowed.
You know, sometimes I meditate,meditate silently to myself for
(20:53):
20 minutes.
Sometimes I need, you know, thesupport of a guided meditation
to kind of hold me accountable,to tune in, and you know I'm
just a firm believer that youknow, meditation is for
everybody.
It's ultimately just finding theform of meditation Like I don't
believe that meditation shouldbe sitting in a quiet room on a
(21:15):
cushion, cross-legged hands andlaps, eyes closed, in silence,
minimum 30 minutes, like thatseems excruciatingly pretty,
that seems like it would hauntme at night, like I couldn't
imagine doing that, and to tellother people that that is why
meditation is just seemsludicrous to me.
And so I just found, like Isaid, like it changed my life.
(21:40):
It changed my perspective onlife.
It allowed me to reconnect withmyself, i think, in ways that I
didn't even know existed.
It allowed me to enjoy thesilence and enjoy the stillness,
which can be very, very hard,especially going from being very
slow and intentional and thengoing into this hustle culture
(22:02):
and hustling, hustling, hustlingand then trying to then slow
back down was really really hard, and so it was just.
It's been such an amazingexperience.
I still meditate to this day.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I meditate every single day now, what does your
practice look like?
So, if you're not sittingcross-legged on a little pillow
in a corner with your hands inyour lap, what does it look like
for you?
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Some days it looks like that Yeah, you know what It
changes?
it changes on how I feel.
So I have a lot of chronic painin my shoulders.
So sometimes sitting upright isjust not feasible for me.
If I work at my desk for threeor four hours and then I think
I'm gonna go meditate at thattime, i just can't do that.
I will then sit down.
I'll then lie down on a pillowin my office floor, most likely
(22:50):
with a guided meditation.
especially if I'm feelingdiscomfort in my body, a good
guided meditation will help mekind of come back in and less
focus on that.
Sometimes right now, i've beenmeditating a lot in the morning,
getting up before I even exitmy bedroom.
I just kind of get up, go tothe bathroom, make my bed, toss
a pillow on the floor and justkind of sit on the floor and
(23:12):
meditate before I actually goout into the world.
And I find I originally startedmeditating in the afternoon
because that's where I found Ihad time, and then I wanted to
challenge myself to 30 days ofmorning meditation to see.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, okay, I know what the difference was.
When you said you do it in themiddle of the day, I was like,
oh, I just assumed automaticallythat it was something that you
were doing in the morning, but Iguess you can do it whenever it
works.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Sometimes I meditate in my car.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Not while you're driving.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Not while I'm driving .
No, that won't be good.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So how did the 30 days in the morning go?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I loved it.
I loved it.
I was shocked that I loved it.
I don't know why I was soshocked.
I loved it because one I got itout of the way.
As much as I love my practice,it doesn't always come naturally
like I'm just gonna go meditate, like sometimes there's other
things that I wanted to do morethan meditate today.
So I enjoyed that kind ofcomponent that I got up and it
(24:16):
was done in my day before iteven had started, already felt
fulfilled.
Yeah, like I've already checkedthe box off my list, i haven't
even exited the room yet.
So I really enjoyed that.
It really set me up for the day.
I found that I had more clarity,could handle more.
That was in my life.
Like I'm very much still tryingto really understand my nervous
(24:38):
system because of adrenalfatigue and because of the
burnout I can like spike so highin just minimal stressful
situations.
So I found when I meditated inthe morning it really allowed me
to kind of level out throughoutthe day.
It was really good.
But I love you know I reallystarted with meditating in the
afternoon because I wanted aseparation between my work and
(25:02):
my life And I did not want totake my work into my life
because that's what got me.
That was one of the reasonsthat got me into the position I
was in the first place.
And I wanted that break And Iwanted to be like my day is over
.
I'm letting it go here on mycushion in my office And I'm
moving into the rest of my day,so I can be present with my
(25:24):
daughter, i can be pressing withmy husband And I can actually
enjoy that part of my day ratherthan just like sludge through
it going.
Oh my gosh, i can't wait tillthis is over, when I can go to
bed and wake up and have a newday.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Right.
So how then did the?
because you mentioned at thebeginning that you are the
founder of the We Experience.
So tell me a little bit, insomewhat of a nutshell, how like
that came to be and what you'relike now wanting to create for
(25:57):
the world.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Sure, So that started .
Once again, everything hasstemmed from loveliness I really
want it sounds so sad, but itreally did And in August of 2021
, i, on the Lionsgate, imanifested doing a women's event
.
That's what is something Ireally, really wanted to do.
You know, portia, 15 years ago,was the woman that wanted to do
(26:20):
events And I had my daughter at20 and that put a big pause on
a lot of things, and so I reallyfelt like that was my time to
do that.
And so in October of 2021, iannounced that I was doing a
women's event, but really didn'tknow anything else.
It didn't have the WeExperience associated with it.
I knew I didn't want my socialmedia associated with it, so I
just kind of announced it, leftit and let it do its thing And
(26:44):
through meditation, oddly enough, the We Experience came and it
had completely Of course it does.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
That is one thing like What's the word I'm looking
for?
That is one thing, consistently, that I hear that people say
like when you?
you know you said it wasn'toften that I get quiet with
myself, but when people do takethe time to get quiet with
themselves is when, like thosecreative like portals are open
(27:12):
and all the like ideas, all thethoughts, all the downloads can
come, and so that doesn'tsurprise me, that that's when it
came to you.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, so it was.
It was.
It was very interesting becauseI was getting a little nervous.
I didn't have a name, i didn'tknow, like, what this event was
going to be, where it wassupposed to lead, and in the
same notes that I wrote downthis manifestation of the
women's event, or an event, iwould just continuously write
down anything else that inspiredme and got me going.
(27:38):
So I actually wrote down the weexperienced long before
actually came to me.
But I just remember meditatingit all coming to me.
I could feel it, i could see itAnd I just opened my eyes,
immediately, grabbed my phone,opened my notes and there was
the we experienced And it wasjust like this release, like I
(27:59):
found it.
It's here, and so that's kindof where it started.
So we started in February of2022.
And we started with a blogwhere we share women's stories
of, honestly, anything andeverything.
I'm a firm believer that everystory is worth being told.
It doesn't need to be the worstthing that has ever happened to
(28:23):
you.
It can be the most joyful thingthat has ever happened to you.
And then we involved into ourwomen's event.
So in October of 2022, i hosted55 women at a event market in
Newmarket for our first annualWe Gather Brunch, which was just
absolutely amazing.
It still kind of is a littlebit surreal.
Even though it's almost been ayear, it's still crazy that it
(28:46):
had happened and it wassomething that kind of only
lived in my head.
It was a dream that I had andthat I actually got to
experience it and that otherpeople, like 55 other women, got
to experience my dream, yeah,outside of my head, which was so
insane.
And really the premise of ourevents is really to gather women
(29:08):
together to connect and network, but also to feel inspired and
empowered by other stories,because everything that we
experienced meditation practicesall stem from loneliness, and
we can all feel lonely in anyparts of our lives.
Whether we are an entrepreneur,a mother, a sister, it doesn't
(29:28):
really matter.
There's always gonna be momentswhere we're gonna feel alone or
that we're the only personexperiencing it, and so the
mission with the we experienceis to let everybody know that
they're not alone and that weall are experiencing it, maybe
at different times in our lives,but we're here to pick you up
and hold your hand and give youa hug and support you in a way
(29:50):
that is right for you.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Everybody appreciates support in different ways, and
so, yeah, Is we an acronym forsomething, or is it we as in
like?
we the collective.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
So it's kind of I always say it has many meanings
and it evolves just like us.
So it kind of started as the wewas women's empowerment.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
But then it That's what I had in my head.
I probably read that and I waslike now I'm pretending that I
just knew.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But it evolved as, like we, as a collective, us
together, and I think it's thatsymbolization that the we
experience is meant to be acollective.
It is meant to be a community,a network that is evolving and
that is growing, like that's thewhole point.
That's why I always say likethe we is consistently evolving,
(30:42):
because I'm consistentlyevolving and there's a part of
me As we do as humans, yes.
So I always think there's apart of everybody in that we And
as you evolve and as I evolve,it evolves with us.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Wow, okay, so is it a membership as well.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
There is a membership .
So we have.
We launched our membership lastyear and it's called the We
Collective And it is really aplace, It's kind of our intimate
center.
So if you really want to be apart of the We community, the
membership is really where it'sat.
There we have master classesand it's really about a personal
(31:21):
development membership.
So you know, when I firststarted the We experience a lot
of, you know, my friends and mynetwork were a lot of women in
business.
But I really didn't want tohold into that kind of box.
I really didn't want to nichedown, you could say, into that,
Because I feel that there's somany other women that need to be
heard and to be seen and to beloved that aren't in that
(31:42):
entrepreneurial box.
So the We Collective is like apersonal development membership
clashed with a beautifulcommunity of support, And so we
have master classes that are ledby, you know, experts and and
other women that are passionateabout what they are doing.
So we talk about everything frombreathwork practices to self
love.
(32:02):
We've talked about human design, we're doing EFT tapping all of
these different modalities andtools that you can carry in your
tool about when you are justrediscovering yourself, or you
do find yourself, you know, at aposition where you're feeling
stuck and you need something tohelp you get through that.
Because you know I meditateevery day, but I've also do a
(32:24):
lot of breathwork and I do EFTtapping.
It's not something that I doevery day, but it's I do it in
moments of my life when I amneeding something a little bit
more.
I'm needing that push andneeding that to get out of
whatever I'm in, whether I'mstuck in my head, stuck in my
body stuck in my heart.
So we have our master classesand we also have our monthly
huddles where I'm kind of like,i guess, lead the pack in a way.
(32:45):
But this is where we all get toconnect with one another.
So we always start the huddleoff with checking in, checking
in with ourselves, checking inwith one another And seeing
where we can support one anotherin these areas of our life,
whether it's I need support inmy business, can you share a
post, or whether it's like canyou hold me accountable?
I really want to, you know, doa 30 day yoga challenge, but I'm
(33:07):
feeling really insecure to getmyself into the studio.
Can you really push me to getme in there?
And so we kind of start off withthis collective conversation
and then I typically have atopic that we focus on.
So last month, in May, wetalked about slowing down,
because summer can be, you know,sometimes summer can be a
little bit nuts for us And withsummer being so short here in
(33:29):
Ontario, canada, sometimes itfeels like we need to go, go, go
, and we never kind of reallystop and slow down and enjoy,
you know, until September, whenkids go back to school And
you're like damn it, whathappened in the summer?
Honestly, every single year,Yeah, so we have just we have
amazing conversations and reallyhelp and support one another.
(33:51):
there We have a library that'sfull of meditations and yoga
classes and journal prompts tosupport you as well.
But yeah, like that's just ourlittle hub of you know, our
intimate community inside of thewe.
That's so beautiful And toattend the events you do have to
be a member or no?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
No, no members get perks on events.
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
But nope, anybody can attend an event.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, more, more the merrier.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
All are welcome.
I will definitely share all ofthe information where people can
find this out.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
And I think I might come to your brunch.
It's enough.
You do the brunches in the fall, right?
Yes, yeah, so we're still.
I'm still looking for alocation and I don't have a date
, but it will be in October,okay, cool.
Well, people are going to goand follow.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'll also share socials for the week's
experience so they can go overand kind of follow and keep in
touch.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Thank you so much for sharing like so candidly and so
vulnerably your story, and youknow how you like got to this
place of what am I doing now.
Like I thought I haveeverything and yet I feel like
so burnt out because, like Isaid, i feel like people are not
going to be able to go to theevent.
I think that's the place ofwhat am I doing now, like I
thought I have everything andyet I feel like so burnt out
(35:01):
because, like I said, i feellike people, people can resonate
with that, especially like Ihaven't talked about the
pandemic on the show in a longtime, but I think that the
pandemic like really amplifiedthat for a lot of people, and so
the more stories we can shareabout that, the better, the
better.
you know I love sharing stories.
So, anyway, thanks for beinghere.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Thanks for having me, no worries, okay, everybody,
have a great rest of your dayand a great week, and we will
talk to you next one.
Take care.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Hello, hello.
This is Becca.
I'm host of the Go Be Greatpodcast.
There's no such thing as TMIhere, so join me as we chat and
meet amazing humans havingconversations about life,
confidence and more, without thefilter.
Come hang weekly as I shedlight on the topics we often
feel we need to hide.
As we discuss the ebbs andflows of what learning about
(35:48):
what being great really lookslike, let's be great together.
Tune in for new episodes everyWednesday.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Thanks so much for being here.
I hope you're leaving with afull heart, some inspiration, or
you're feeling the kick in thebutt You felt like you needed.
If you really enjoyed thisepisode, be sure to share it
with a friend or let me knowRates, reviews, subscribing and
sharing are all great ways tosupport the show And if you want
to stay in touch, follow meover on Instagram at
(36:19):
thebalancebless.
Thanks for listening today andstay well.
This show is brought to you by Female Alliance Media,
by Women for Women.
Welcome to the Balance andBliss Podcast.
I'm your host, Andrea Mondu, athree-time published author,
speaker and a lifestyletransformation coach who
believes everyone should begiven the gift of knowing how to
live their lives feelinghealthy and empowered.
(00:20):
Things like moving your bodyregularly and feeling it well,
taking care of your mind,setting boundaries, practicing
self and body acceptance,personal growth, manifestation
and everything in between.
Wellness is not linear and it'snot just one thing.
It expands into so many areasAnd on this show we're going to
(00:41):
talk about just that.
We're all striving to live alittle more healthy and a little
more well, But what does thateven mean?
My goal is to help you see thatyou can move from the mundane
to the magic when it comes toliving aligned and fulfilled,
And by tuning in each week youcan be assured you'll leave with
nuggets of wisdom that you canimplement into your day to day,
(01:04):
like right now, to help youmaximize your health, wellness
and your life.
Now let's dive in.
Portia, I'm really, reallyexcited to chat today, But
before we chat, did you get yourair conditioning fixed?
I did get my air conditioningfixed.
Oh my gosh, We're recording inthe middle of I guess they would
(01:26):
call this heat wave in Ontario,And today it was like what?
32?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
At least 32 degrees Celsius, And you didn't have air
conditioning and that wouldjust be like you and your poor
dog It was hard, and I bake, sotoday I actually bake in the
morning, so it was verystressful to figure out how, if
my air conditioner wasn't goingto be fixed today, how I was
(01:53):
going to cool my house after myoven being on, and so that was a
little bit nerve wracking.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
So did you come up with a solution?
No, that my air conditioningwould be fixed.
Oh my gosh.
I was just going to say likeI'd be so curious of what this
solution would be to like I'mthinking like big industrial
fans and like something to blowthe hot air out just for more
hot air to come in, likerealistically, but prices
(02:22):
averted, and you and I both havebig dogs, so like this
temperature, like today, we wentout for a W I can't even say
the full word because she'sright here, but we went out for
a W and like she was reallyexcited to come and I was like
dude, you don't want to come onthis because it's so hot, like
you will not survive, it's sotrue, oh my gosh.
(02:45):
Anyway, so I really wanted tohave you come on the show and I
will let you introduce yourselfto everybody who's like who is
this person that she's talkingto?
But I really I think I reallywanted to have you on.
Well, a number of differentreasons.
When we chatted a couple ofweeks ago, i just really enjoyed
our conversation, but also Ijust, you know, a lot of people
(03:09):
feel like when it comes towellness and when it comes to
like being self aware.
It's like once you've figuredit out, then you don't have any,
like blips or dips, or likeonce you figured it out, then
everything's fine, and there'sno possible way that you can be
in a position again where you'relike, oh my gosh, how did I let
myself get here?
(03:29):
But I think that that actuallyhappens for a lot more of us
than maybe people like to talkabout, and I think it's actually
more realistic to assume thatthere's going to potentially be
really big ebbs and flows in theways that we are aware, how
we're taking care of ourselves,all those sorts of things.
So, anyway, that's like why Iwanted to have you come on the
(03:50):
show, but I will hand the micover to you to tell everybody
who you are and introduceyourself a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I'm Portia.
I always struggle with these somuch.
I'm Portia.
I'm the founder of the WeExperience, i guess, first and
foremost, and that is reallyjust a place for women just to
land softly and be exactly whothey are in the moment that they
are in.
We're all about celebrating andsupporting one another And our
(04:21):
page is really about, you know,being seen and heard and loved
without having to change, and sothat's kind of, i guess that's
what I guess, what I do Inregards to me.
I married, i have a daughterwho's 15.
I have a dog, and I'm currentlyhave four little baby chicks
living in my house And I'm superlike, just for me, as who I am.
(04:45):
I'm just super passionate aboutmeditating.
I'm really passionate about,you know, finding hobbies
outside of work and outside ofyour business.
So if I'm not in the way youcan typically find me doing a
puzzle, i make sourdough forfriends and family and, you know
, walking and meditating andbeing outside is kind of my
(05:06):
happy place.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Listen, your bread looks so good.
I'm just like can I eat throughthis screen?
I wish I lived closer to newmarket because I would be like
hook me up, you're new marketright Just a bit north of there.
Yeah, yeah, okay, i was likeI'd be like hook me up with some
bread.
Okay, so you said that you'rereally into meditating and being
(05:32):
in nature and all those sortsof pieces which are like so
great in terms of taking care ofourselves.
But why don't you like wheredid your wellness journey kind
of start?
or like, how you know, take usback a little bit to like Portia
, however many years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, so Portia's been through a lot, a lot of
different journeys.
So I would say my wellnessjourney probably started when I
took my yoga teacher trainingand my daughter was probably
four at the time, so, and shewas going into kindergarten or
her second year of kindergarten,and so, yeah, it was about 10
years ago.
I kind of took on thatadventure And the main reason
(06:13):
why I did it is I was strugglingwith anxiety with my daughter
going to school.
I felt like I was a little bitout of control.
I didn't have a lot of controlwhen she was at school and I
found myself feeling reallyanxious.
So that is where my journeybegan, as a yoga teacher,
trainer and then kind of divinginto the spiritual realm.
It was something that I was notfamiliar with and it really
(06:37):
intrigued me and I felt very athome in that space And that was
really the jumping off point.
I wasn't very much a personthat liked to do a lot of
movement or anything like that,and it really started to get the
ball rolling and really startedto open my eyes and open my
minds to different things.
From there I became a Reikipractitioner and I have my level
(06:59):
two Reiki And that kind ofopened up another door.
It kind of opened up thisdifferent form of wellness that
I was not necessarily aware of,like these energies that are in
our bodies, like how amazing isthat It is so amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
It's so amazing And like one of the things that I
find that I'm constantly talkingabout, because I think that
like people forget, or we'vebeen inundated for so long with
like diet, culture, mentality,is that like wellness is so much
more than just like what we'reeating and how we're moving our
bodies.
Like those two things areincredibly important.
(07:34):
They fuel our vessel and theylike obviously take care of our
mental health and stuff too,especially movement, but like
spirituality and like tuninginto energies and like being in
tune with our body in like aspiritual way is also a part of
it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, and so it kind of really started to guide me
And I had an in-home spin studio, which was absolutely amazing.
I did that for three years.
It was so cool.
It was one of those thingswhere I convinced my husband to
do this over a few beverages andI went and got my certification
(08:12):
and literally two months laterI bought bikes, set up my
basement and we were riding.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oh my God, it was in, that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It started in April.
first class was June.
I think I started with twoclasses a week.
By September, i think, i got tofive And then, shortly after
that, i think I was teaching 10spin costs a week.
It was insanity, but it waslike the best kind of insanity
because I was surrounded by somany amazing people.
I got to meet people from verydifferent walks of life and got
(08:42):
to hear their stories andconnect with them on such an
intimate level, because we're inmy basement There's like seven
of us crammed in, sweatingtogether, breathing together,
jamming out.
So it was such a coolexperience.
And from there I actually when Istarted that business it was
called the Den and I had thislike pretty cool social media
(09:02):
platform and people wouldconstantly be like Portia, can
you help me?
Like why does your platformlook so good?
Like what are you doing?
And I was like I really don'tknow.
I have a background inmarketing.
Like I kind of just have an eyefor it.
I really don't know what I'mdoing, but they're like can you
help me?
And eventually I was like okay,i've had enough people asking
me for help around social mediawebsite design that I was like
(09:24):
maybe this is something that Ineed to pursue, and just at the
end of, i would say, 2019 iswhen I kind of started taking on
the social media manager kindof adventure And it started off
as such an amazing journey.
And I think it was amazingbecause I had the balance
between the Den and the socialmedia, so I really couldn't
(09:46):
fully dive into the social mediaworld And it was a place that I
wasn't necessarily familiarwith Before social media.
I very rarely showed up online,like I had an Instagram account
but maybe posted a picture fourtimes a year.
I don't even think I postedanything in a story And it was
mainly just for the Den.
It had its own page And onceagain, i was not even on there.
(10:07):
The premise of the Den is verysimilar to the we experienced,
where I'm kind of a little bitin the background and you as the
community get to shine firstAnd I'll kind of just pop out in
the back, and so I just neverreally showed up there.
And then, when I got into thissocial media world, it really
started to grab hold of me Andit took time.
(10:29):
It took, i would say, about ayear and a half before it really
got its nails into me And Istarted to really feel the
effects of external validationimposter syndrome and really
started to actually lose myselfduring this incredible journey.
And it's crazy because thosethat watch the journey outside,
(10:52):
looking in it, looked like I washaving a freaking blast.
It looked like my world wasjust turned upside down and I
was surrounded by all of thisabundance, surrounded by all of
this like amazingness, and mytrajectory was cool, like I just
skyrocketed in such a shortperiod of time And it caught up
(11:13):
to me very, very quickly.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
So you're a Reiki master, you're a yoga teacher,
you have a spin studio andyou're spinning.
Were you the only instructor inyour studio?
Yeah, I don't know why I'musing air quotes?
because it's your.
You know why I'm using airquotes is because I call my
basement my podcast studio.
(11:38):
And so when you're like bikes inmy basement, i'm like okay, but
I mean that is still very mucha legitimate business, as is my
basement as my podcast studio,so I'm going to stop using air
quotes about it, butnevertheless you're teaching 10
spin classes a week, like you'reseemingly, like you said, from
the outside really taking goodcare of yourself.
You have all of these liketuning into yourself tools.
(12:01):
Then you dive deep into thissocial media management and you
burnt out pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, So I sold the den about a year after I got
into the social media.
I knew that I couldn't balancethe two anymore And with
everything that kind of happenedin the world, it just wasn't
necessarily the same vibe And,to be honest, after not having
people in my house for a goodsolid nine months, it was very,
(12:29):
very hard to kind of open thatdoor again.
Like I got to reclaim mybasement again And so it was
just like it was really reallyhard to be like let's do this
again.
So I decided to sell it andthen dive deep into the social
media world and start creating avery small boutique style
agency.
And, yeah, about a year into it, I would say not even that much
(12:54):
.
Well, I would say after sellingmy business, I would say about a
year into it, after selling theden, I really started to feel
the burnout.
I was feeling very isolated andlonely in it.
I was once a person that wassurrounded by seven people
multiple times a week and justwas like ingesting their energy
(13:17):
and it completely stopped And Iwas sitting in my office alone
five days a week.
I was working longer hours thanI ever had before.
It took a toll in such adifferent way.
Like spin yoga, It's a physicaltoll and it's a mental and
spiritual toll, but at the sametime it's very rewarding.
Where I always found socialmedia to be the reward of it was
(13:38):
very short and it was never thesame Like when I go teach a
yoga class.
I'm energized after that.
But sometimes, getting off ofsocial media after being on it
for like two hours or even anhour, I'm so mentally drained
And it just it really reallycaught up to me.
I didn't have a greatexperience with a client.
(13:59):
I think that really kind of wasthe straw that kind of broke
the camel's back, that reallyopened my eyes to the reality of
it all.
And it was just kind of inthose moments where I just kind
of decided that I need to kindof take a few steps back and
reassess the whole situation.
And at the end of 2021 was whenI dedicated a full year to my
(14:21):
healing journey.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
My rediscovery journey.
I should say Yeah, totally, andI remember like the key things,
because, you know, some peoplewill say I used to enjoy this
and then I found I wasn'tenjoying this anymore, or I used
to like be this way, and nowyou know, people were saying to
me, the people closest to mewere like oh, like we noticed
that you're not the same personanymore.
(14:43):
What have you like?
was there anything that kind oflike?
you said you had thatinteraction with the client, but
how did you like?
was there anything you couldpinpoint?
I guess it was like oh my gosh,like something has to change at
the end of 2021 to then startthat rediscovery.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah.
So I was talking with myhusband in the garage and I
would say I'm a very connectedperson with myself, i'm very in
tuned and over the burnout Islowly started to lose myself.
I started to lose thatconnection and drift further and
further away of who I was andwhat my goals were and what my
definitions of success andhappiness were.
(15:19):
And I remember having aconversation with my husband,
and I don't even know why itstarted, but I just looked at
him and said you know what?
I'm happy, but I've beenhappier and I want to be happier
, like I'm done living the waythat I'm living.
I need something else.
And that was kind of thekickstart, i think.
(15:39):
Verbally saying it, i basicallytold the universe like, take, i
don't have the courage right nowto eliminate any of the things
on my plate, can you do it forme?
And in a matter of, honestly, amonth and a half, a lot was
eliminated and it was hard toswallow because, at the same
time, as much as I wanted mybusiness to continue to succeed
(15:59):
and have this like up, like up,going momentum, it, it was
needed.
It was really, really needed.
At the time.
I needed, you know, the punchin the gut just to be like okay,
portia, you have to slow down.
You cannot continue to move atthe rate that you're moving,
because You know you're notgonna be happy in two months
(16:20):
right.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So like what was the first thing you did then?
or like how did you start?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I guess, other than the universe doing some of the
work for you, i I Started to getsome books and I thought maybe
some like self-help books orpersonal development books would
help.
I found that to be veryoverwhelming.
I was at a state where, once Ikind of fully accepted where I
(16:46):
was at, kind of everythingstarted to shut down.
My body started to shut downlike I was eating all of the
right things, i was taking allof the right supplements, i was
working out six days a week, ihad a personal trainer.
You know, you know, accordingto the books, i was completely
happy and I was like no more, nomore, i'm done, i'm done.
(17:06):
And listen to me, yeah, and, andone of the key indicators was I
had a really low heart rate.
So I got an on.
My husband was so persistent onme getting this Apple watch and
I finally got it.
And then it was like Constantlyalarming me when I would wake
up because my heart rate wouldgo below 30 beats a minute and I
was like Almost dead when I wassleeping and and it would
(17:30):
slowly creep into my life.
I was very lightheaded, and sosome of these subtle symptoms
were kind of showing up, and Sothe first things I did was tried
to get some self-help books andkind of figure out what was
going on in my mind, but thatwas way too overwhelming.
I was not in the place to takeon anything.
My mind was so foggy andcongested, my body was so tired.
I just it was like I wasdepressed, but it was like my
(17:55):
body was depressed, like my mindwas there and functioning
because my cortisol was so high,but my body was.
It was depressed, it didn'twant to do the things that it
wanted to do, like I was workingout If for 50 minutes, and then
, once I fully accepted theburnout, i couldn't even walk
for 10 minutes.
Wow and so it just was so crazy,i think, after I learned that
(18:16):
the self-help books and thepersonal development books were
not necessarily gonna work, istarted to lean on things that I
knew would help me feel better,and so, in December of 2021, i
dedicated my.
I dedicated 30 days tomeditation, and So I started
with my Peloton app and Istarted with like five-minute
meditations.
(18:37):
Ross Rayburn, he's the best onthere If you're looking for like
a nice spiritual guy.
I'm Peloton, but I started withmy Peloton app.
I just sat in my office, youknow, after my day, and just
started meditating.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
What made you sorry, i'm just gonna interrupt because
I'm curious like, what had youmeditated previously before?
I guess you taught yoga andstuff, but did you ever meditate
yourself?
and if not, then what like madeyou think I should try this?
I?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Try, i've never meditated before Teaching yoga.
Like you get a little bit ofmeditation kind of at the
beginning and kind of at the endin the show.
But it's not necessarily thesame thing.
I I tried 30 days of gratitudeto start and It was really
really hard to find gratitudewhen I was so angry.
(19:25):
Mmm it was really, really hardto be grateful for the things
that were happening in my lifewhen I was so angry at my body.
I was angry at myself, and so Ireally don't know what led me
to meditation.
I I Honestly I think, Intuition.
I think I saw it on my Pelotonapp and thought what, what could
go wrong, like what would bethe harm?
and just starting at fiveminutes and and going from there
(19:48):
.
And I had a With my agency, ihad a small team, and so I
tossed it out to them and justsaid if you guys want to join me
, join me on my 30 days ofmeditation.
And I felt like that kind ofhelped me a little bit.
I don't necessarily know ifthey ever did it, it didn't
really even matter if they diddo it, but it was just kind of
like come join me on this littlejourney.
(20:09):
And and, yeah, it just slowlyblossomed from there and I
started with five minutes.
After two weeks, i think, i wasup to ten minutes and then I
slowly started to crave itbecause it was the only time
where I could sit still withmyself, even though my mind was
consistently racing, even thoughI was super fidgety and wanted
to get out of it.
The moment I sat down, i alwaysfelt significantly better after
(20:32):
the ten minutes, after the fiveminutes, and so the 30 days
ended and then I didn't want tostop.
So 30 days led to 60 days,which led to three months, which
led to six months, which led to365 days of meditating, and My
practice kind of has ebb andflowed.
You know, sometimes I meditate,meditate silently to myself for
(20:53):
20 minutes.
Sometimes I need, you know, thesupport of a guided meditation
to kind of hold me accountable,to tune in, and you know I'm
just a firm believer that youknow, meditation is for
everybody.
It's ultimately just finding theform of meditation Like I don't
believe that meditation shouldbe sitting in a quiet room on a
(21:15):
cushion, cross-legged hands andlaps, eyes closed, in silence,
minimum 30 minutes, like thatseems excruciatingly pretty,
that seems like it would hauntme at night, like I couldn't
imagine doing that, and to tellother people that that is why
meditation is just seemsludicrous to me.
And so I just found, like Isaid, like it changed my life.
(21:40):
It changed my perspective onlife.
It allowed me to reconnect withmyself, i think, in ways that I
didn't even know existed.
It allowed me to enjoy thesilence and enjoy the stillness,
which can be very, very hard,especially going from being very
slow and intentional and thengoing into this hustle culture
(22:02):
and hustling, hustling, hustlingand then trying to then slow
back down was really really hard, and so it was just.
It's been such an amazingexperience.
I still meditate to this day.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I meditate every single day now, what does your
practice look like?
So, if you're not sittingcross-legged on a little pillow
in a corner with your hands inyour lap, what does it look like
for you?
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Some days it looks like that Yeah, you know what It
changes?
it changes on how I feel.
So I have a lot of chronic painin my shoulders.
So sometimes sitting upright isjust not feasible for me.
If I work at my desk for threeor four hours and then I think
I'm gonna go meditate at thattime, i just can't do that.
I will then sit down.
I'll then lie down on a pillowin my office floor, most likely
(22:50):
with a guided meditation.
especially if I'm feelingdiscomfort in my body, a good
guided meditation will help mekind of come back in and less
focus on that.
Sometimes right now, i've beenmeditating a lot in the morning,
getting up before I even exitmy bedroom.
I just kind of get up, go tothe bathroom, make my bed, toss
a pillow on the floor and justkind of sit on the floor and
(23:12):
meditate before I actually goout into the world.
And I find I originally startedmeditating in the afternoon
because that's where I found Ihad time, and then I wanted to
challenge myself to 30 days ofmorning meditation to see.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, okay, I know what the difference was.
When you said you do it in themiddle of the day, I was like,
oh, I just assumed automaticallythat it was something that you
were doing in the morning, but Iguess you can do it whenever it
works.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Sometimes I meditate in my car.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Not while you're driving.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Not while I'm driving .
No, that won't be good.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So how did the 30 days in the morning go?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I loved it.
I loved it.
I was shocked that I loved it.
I don't know why I was soshocked.
I loved it because one I got itout of the way.
As much as I love my practice,it doesn't always come naturally
like I'm just gonna go meditate, like sometimes there's other
things that I wanted to do morethan meditate today.
So I enjoyed that kind ofcomponent that I got up and it
(24:16):
was done in my day before iteven had started, already felt
fulfilled.
Yeah, like I've already checkedthe box off my list, i haven't
even exited the room yet.
So I really enjoyed that.
It really set me up for the day.
I found that I had more clarity,could handle more.
That was in my life.
Like I'm very much still tryingto really understand my nervous
(24:38):
system because of adrenalfatigue and because of the
burnout I can like spike so highin just minimal stressful
situations.
So I found when I meditated inthe morning it really allowed me
to kind of level out throughoutthe day.
It was really good.
But I love you know I reallystarted with meditating in the
afternoon because I wanted aseparation between my work and
(25:02):
my life And I did not want totake my work into my life
because that's what got me.
That was one of the reasonsthat got me into the position I
was in the first place.
And I wanted that break And Iwanted to be like my day is over
.
I'm letting it go here on mycushion in my office And I'm
moving into the rest of my day,so I can be present with my
(25:24):
daughter, i can be pressing withmy husband And I can actually
enjoy that part of my day ratherthan just like sludge through
it going.
Oh my gosh, i can't wait tillthis is over, when I can go to
bed and wake up and have a newday.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Right.
So how then did the?
because you mentioned at thebeginning that you are the
founder of the We Experience.
So tell me a little bit, insomewhat of a nutshell, how like
that came to be and what you'relike now wanting to create for
(25:57):
the world.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Sure, So that started .
Once again, everything hasstemmed from loveliness I really
want it sounds so sad, but itreally did And in August of 2021
, i, on the Lionsgate, imanifested doing a women's event
.
That's what is something Ireally, really wanted to do.
You know, portia, 15 years ago,was the woman that wanted to do
(26:20):
events And I had my daughter at20 and that put a big pause on
a lot of things, and so I reallyfelt like that was my time to
do that.
And so in October of 2021, iannounced that I was doing a
women's event, but really didn'tknow anything else.
It didn't have the WeExperience associated with it.
I knew I didn't want my socialmedia associated with it, so I
just kind of announced it, leftit and let it do its thing And
(26:44):
through meditation, oddly enough, the We Experience came and it
had completely Of course it does.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
That is one thing like What's the word I'm looking
for?
That is one thing, consistently, that I hear that people say
like when you?
you know you said it wasn'toften that I get quiet with
myself, but when people do takethe time to get quiet with
themselves is when, like thosecreative like portals are open
(27:12):
and all the like ideas, all thethoughts, all the downloads can
come, and so that doesn'tsurprise me, that that's when it
came to you.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, so it was.
It was.
It was very interesting becauseI was getting a little nervous.
I didn't have a name, i didn'tknow, like, what this event was
going to be, where it wassupposed to lead, and in the
same notes that I wrote downthis manifestation of the
women's event, or an event, iwould just continuously write
down anything else that inspiredme and got me going.
(27:38):
So I actually wrote down the weexperienced long before
actually came to me.
But I just remember meditatingit all coming to me.
I could feel it, i could see itAnd I just opened my eyes,
immediately, grabbed my phone,opened my notes and there was
the we experienced And it wasjust like this release, like I
(27:59):
found it.
It's here, and so that's kindof where it started.
So we started in February of2022.
And we started with a blogwhere we share women's stories
of, honestly, anything andeverything.
I'm a firm believer that everystory is worth being told.
It doesn't need to be the worstthing that has ever happened to
(28:23):
you.
It can be the most joyful thingthat has ever happened to you.
And then we involved into ourwomen's event.
So in October of 2022, i hosted55 women at a event market in
Newmarket for our first annualWe Gather Brunch, which was just
absolutely amazing.
It still kind of is a littlebit surreal.
Even though it's almost been ayear, it's still crazy that it
(28:46):
had happened and it wassomething that kind of only
lived in my head.
It was a dream that I had andthat I actually got to
experience it and that otherpeople, like 55 other women, got
to experience my dream, yeah,outside of my head, which was so
insane.
And really the premise of ourevents is really to gather women
(29:08):
together to connect and network, but also to feel inspired and
empowered by other stories,because everything that we
experienced meditation practicesall stem from loneliness, and
we can all feel lonely in anyparts of our lives.
Whether we are an entrepreneur,a mother, a sister, it doesn't
(29:28):
really matter.
There's always gonna be momentswhere we're gonna feel alone or
that we're the only personexperiencing it, and so the
mission with the we experienceis to let everybody know that
they're not alone and that weall are experiencing it, maybe
at different times in our lives,but we're here to pick you up
and hold your hand and give youa hug and support you in a way
(29:50):
that is right for you.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Everybody appreciates support in different ways, and
so, yeah, Is we an acronym forsomething, or is it we as in
like?
we the collective.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
So it's kind of I always say it has many meanings
and it evolves just like us.
So it kind of started as the wewas women's empowerment.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
But then it That's what I had in my head.
I probably read that and I waslike now I'm pretending that I
just knew.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
But it evolved as, like we, as a collective, us
together, and I think it's thatsymbolization that the we
experience is meant to be acollective.
It is meant to be a community,a network that is evolving and
that is growing, like that's thewhole point.
That's why I always say likethe we is consistently evolving,
(30:42):
because I'm consistentlyevolving and there's a part of
me As we do as humans, yes.
So I always think there's apart of everybody in that we And
as you evolve and as I evolve,it evolves with us.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Wow, okay, so is it a membership as well.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
There is a membership .
So we have.
We launched our membership lastyear and it's called the We
Collective And it is really aplace, It's kind of our intimate
center.
So if you really want to be apart of the We community, the
membership is really where it'sat.
There we have master classesand it's really about a personal
(31:21):
development membership.
So you know, when I firststarted the We experience a lot
of, you know, my friends and mynetwork were a lot of women in
business.
But I really didn't want tohold into that kind of box.
I really didn't want to nichedown, you could say, into that,
Because I feel that there's somany other women that need to be
heard and to be seen and to beloved that aren't in that
(31:42):
entrepreneurial box.
So the We Collective is like apersonal development membership
clashed with a beautifulcommunity of support, And so we
have master classes that are ledby, you know, experts and and
other women that are passionateabout what they are doing.
So we talk about everything frombreathwork practices to self
love.
(32:02):
We've talked about human design, we're doing EFT tapping all of
these different modalities andtools that you can carry in your
tool about when you are justrediscovering yourself, or you
do find yourself, you know, at aposition where you're feeling
stuck and you need something tohelp you get through that.
Because you know I meditateevery day, but I've also do a
(32:24):
lot of breathwork and I do EFTtapping.
It's not something that I doevery day, but it's I do it in
moments of my life when I amneeding something a little bit
more.
I'm needing that push andneeding that to get out of
whatever I'm in, whether I'mstuck in my head, stuck in my
body stuck in my heart.
So we have our master classesand we also have our monthly
huddles where I'm kind of like,i guess, lead the pack in a way.
(32:45):
But this is where we all get toconnect with one another.
So we always start the huddleoff with checking in, checking
in with ourselves, checking inwith one another And seeing
where we can support one anotherin these areas of our life,
whether it's I need support inmy business, can you share a
post, or whether it's like canyou hold me accountable?
I really want to, you know, doa 30 day yoga challenge, but I'm
(33:07):
feeling really insecure to getmyself into the studio.
Can you really push me to getme in there?
And so we kind of start off withthis collective conversation
and then I typically have atopic that we focus on.
So last month, in May, wetalked about slowing down,
because summer can be, you know,sometimes summer can be a
little bit nuts for us And withsummer being so short here in
(33:29):
Ontario, canada, sometimes itfeels like we need to go, go, go
, and we never kind of reallystop and slow down and enjoy,
you know, until September, whenkids go back to school And
you're like damn it, whathappened in the summer?
Honestly, every single year,Yeah, so we have just we have
amazing conversations and reallyhelp and support one another.
(33:51):
there We have a library that'sfull of meditations and yoga
classes and journal prompts tosupport you as well.
But yeah, like that's just ourlittle hub of you know, our
intimate community inside of thewe.
That's so beautiful And toattend the events you do have to
be a member or no?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
No, no members get perks on events.
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
But nope, anybody can attend an event.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, more, more the merrier.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
All are welcome.
I will definitely share all ofthe information where people can
find this out.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
And I think I might come to your brunch.
It's enough.
You do the brunches in the fall, right?
Yes, yeah, so we're still.
I'm still looking for alocation and I don't have a date
, but it will be in October,okay, cool.
Well, people are going to goand follow.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'll also share socials for the week's
experience so they can go overand kind of follow and keep in
touch.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Thank you so much for sharing like so candidly and so
vulnerably your story, and youknow how you like got to this
place of what am I doing now.
Like I thought I haveeverything and yet I feel like
so burnt out because, like Isaid, i feel like people are not
going to be able to go to theevent.
I think that's the place ofwhat am I doing now, like I
thought I have everything andyet I feel like so burnt out
(35:01):
because, like I said, i feellike people, people can resonate
with that, especially like Ihaven't talked about the
pandemic on the show in a longtime, but I think that the
pandemic like really amplifiedthat for a lot of people, and so
the more stories we can shareabout that, the better, the
better.
you know I love sharing stories.
So, anyway, thanks for beinghere.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Thanks for having me, no worries, okay, everybody,
have a great rest of your dayand a great week, and we will
talk to you next one.
Take care.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Hello, hello.
This is Becca.
I'm host of the Go Be Greatpodcast.
There's no such thing as TMIhere, so join me as we chat and
meet amazing humans havingconversations about life,
confidence and more, without thefilter.
Come hang weekly as I shedlight on the topics we often
feel we need to hide.
As we discuss the ebbs andflows of what learning about
(35:48):
what being great really lookslike, let's be great together.
Tune in for new episodes everyWednesday.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Thanks so much for being here.
I hope you're leaving with afull heart, some inspiration, or
you're feeling the kick in thebutt You felt like you needed.
If you really enjoyed thisepisode, be sure to share it
with a friend or let me knowRates, reviews, subscribing and
sharing are all great ways tosupport the show And if you want
to stay in touch, follow meover on Instagram at
(36:19):
thebalancebless.
Thanks for listening today andstay well.
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