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October 15, 2020: Topics of discussion: Self Love, Consciousness and Mental Health with Published Author of “Unapologetic, a generation that can’t even” and Certified Life Coach Traci Propst. In this episode we go deep into the relationship that each of us have with our thoughts and how we can be more aware of our emotions, feelings and nourish our self love to step into the best life we could have even imagined. Abundance and infinite possibilities are always right around the corner!!!

ZACH: Hey Tracy, how are you doing?

TRACI: Hey I’m good Zach. How are you? 

ZACH: I’m doing really well thanks for asking and welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today? 

TRACI: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it. 

ZACH: I’m so happy to have you.  For all the audience and people that are listening, Tracy Propst is a Certified Life Coach and published author of the book “Unapologetic” she loves to speak a lot on self-love, finding your beauty inside and out.  So tell us more about yourself and your business.

TRACI: Yes, so I am a Certified Life Coach I’ve been in the business now for about 5 years give or take, I got certified out in San Diego, California but I work with clients from coast to coast all the way from New York to Los Angeles, so it’s been a very rewarding experience so far. 

ZACH: Very cool and I’m a Certified Life Coach as well, I’m not sure if you know that or not. 

TRACI: I did, yes.

ZACH:  So tell me more about your business and what you specialize in and how you can help the audience the most.

TRACI: So my business specifically I love to help my clients that are struggling with self-confidence, self-love and really that means just loving yourself inside and out like I think every single person is so beautiful and is so unique and it’s about really discovering what makes you so unique that helps you on your journey to self love.

ZACH:  That’s so great, how can someone discover what makes them so unique? 

TRACI: That’s a great question Zach. We care so much about what other people have to say about us, you know, I think we’re all guilty of reading into other people’s perceptions. I think when you’re able to kind of step out of what other people are thinking about you and really just sit with yourself, think about things that you’re good, think about things that you enjoy doing and I think by doing that self Journey you find what makes you very unique as a person and then you can come to start loving and nourishing that. 

ZACH: Yeah, that was such a good answer. The first step is really about not caring what other people think and that starts, which is ironic, but you know this starts with yourself, by not caring what other people think. One of the first things that stood out to me when you answered was my experience reading Eckhart Tolle “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth”. 

TRACI: Great one, yes!

ZACH: That book was really a pivotal moment in my life that shifted my mind set on how I live and how I interacted with myself. The relationship I have with my thoughts, how my thoughts are just thoughts, Zach is Zach, Zach is not his thoughts and being able to dis-identify from my thoughts allowed me so much… It was like I was liberated from what everyone else thinks. I don’t care what my Mom thinks. I didn’t care what my friends think. I didn’t care what my Mentor thinks or anybody else thinks. And that is the first step in discovering your unique talents and who you are as a person so you can begin to cultivate that self love like you mentioned.

TRACI:  Absolutely Zach, you hit the nail on the head. When people start to realize that they are not their thoughts that their thoughts and their feelings are fleeting and not permanent, they are all temporary, that’s when they can rise to a higher power. And you’re right, you just don’t care what other people think about you cause that’s just not who you are.

ZACH: My gosh, I”m so excited that the conversation went in this direction because consciousness, which I think is the word that describes.. And there’s no word that describes our ideas in our head right now cause they are just letters on a paper and it’s just post signs. But at the end of the day, consciousness is the best word that describes everything that we’re kind of talking about, is that awareness that you’re aware of. We’re not just living, you need to be that awareness that you’re aware of what’s going on. All that comes full circle with mindfulness and meditation. And then you get deeper and it turns into spirituality, and then when you get to that peak of transcending consciousness into full blow spirituality you start to really love yourself. 

TRACI: Yes, absolutely, 100%. I think when you hit your spiritual awareness, it’s so hard to explain it for someone who hasn’t been there, but you are really rising about yourself, and realizing that you are not your shell. So many people live in their shell in their day to day life and I feel like that’s why people find it so hard to love themselves or express themselves, because they are just this shell of a person. That’s when I think, you’re right, when you hit your spiritual peak and awareness is when you really thrive.

ZACH:  Someone like me who’s taken consciousness 101, spirituality 101, self love 101, how do I continue to get deeper into self love and becoming more unapologetic?

TRACI: We are all human right? You are going to have bad days. That’s just innate, It’s just going to happen.  I think it’s a constant work in progress and when you realize that that’s what it is and become okay with that and stop getting down on yourself when you’re having a bad day or a bad mental health day and just not feeling good and separating yourself from those feelings. I think that’s the most important thing is when we can sit there and say I feel like crap today and that’s okay, you know, like it’s just a feeling and I’m allowed to feel that way because I’m human. So I think really just being okay with who we are and how we feel and understanding that that’s kind of what makes us who we are it kind of helps with our journey along the way to being unapologetic. Because it is okay that you feel like crap, you know, it is okay that you’re happy the next day. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

ZACH: Such a good answer again, it’s like there’s so many things that you said in the last 45 seconds that I want to elaborate on from my opinion and the first thing I thought about was our emotions and our feelings and how you mentioned mental health sometimes you can have a bad mental health day and I think the most important piece to continuing to cultivate and nourish your mental health is being aware and watching your feelings and not identifying with your feelings. You’re not sad. You’re not jealous. You’re not angry. You’re Traci Propst.  Your name is not sad and that’s not how you’re going to identify yourself and if you can watch those feelings and if you can watch those emotions and from watching them through your third eye as people call it and being The Watcher you’re able to dis-identify from the those feelings and eventually those feelings just evaporate into thin air, but it’s when we identify, I’m so sad and then because you’re sad like you don’t want to eat or you don’t want to spend time with your family and that really transcendence and comes with you into the next day and then the next day and then it becomes your temperament and then a week and a half goes by and you’re still sad.. No no you forgot that you’re Traci and I don’t mean to use you, but to use you as an example. I’m sure you’re familiar with dr. Joe dispenza, he goes into two-and-a-half 3 weeks go by now it becomes your personality and now you really are sad. You know, so it starts in the beginning when you do have these feelings and you do have these emotions that you watch them and you watch them so you can dis-identify from them and then you mentioned something also about that self-love and talking to yourself as if you’re talking to a friend. Why are you being hard on yourself? No talk to yourself as if you were talking to your little brother, talk to yourself as if you’re talking to your best friend, someone that you care about. Sometimes we get so caught up in our thoughts thinking this is who we are. We’re not able to be like, hey, like that’s how I’m feeling right now. But it’s okay to feel that way is what you would say to your sister or your friend. So I think that’s so great and so important when it comes to continuing to nurture and create more self-love for us is all those things are mentioned. 

TRACI: Right? We are so hard on ourselves aren’t we? The meanest, the things we say to ourselves we would never say to another person. It’s true! It’s about when you’re feeling those emotions or instead of saying I AM sad I AM angry say I FEEL That’s what makes it a feeling and not a part of who you are and that’s how you’re able to keep your identity and separate the two. It’s a lot of work you know? I find myself slipping all the time and being like I’M so pissed off, I’M so you know, I’m not I’m Traci, just like you said, that’s who I am and I feel this way and this feelings going to go away and it might come back in five minutes it might come back in 3 days and that’s fine. But that’s not who I am. So I think you’re right just constantly talking to ourselves like you said, like it’s our little sister, like it’s our little brother, like having that gentle understanding voice for ourselves is what self-love is.

ZACH: Yes, that’s it.  So let me ask you a question. Obviously the book Unapologetic, I have not read it yet, but I’m going to order it and read it. But tell me what was your favorite chapter in the book to write?

TRACI:  Okay, so Unapologetic, you can get it on Amazon, type in my name, Traci Propst and it will pop up. My favorite chapter that I enjoyed writing the most… It’s about the millennial generation so it’s about how we’re handling different situations, so it’s called “Unapologetic, a generation that can’t even”. I love the last part because it just really, that’s us right? You know, we can’t even. We can’t even. The chapter I enjoyed writing the most was about quarter life crisis.

ZACH: I’m going through that right now.

TRACI: Aren’t we all? It’s a term that wasn’t even coined before the millennial generation. It wasn’t a thing, people didn’t talk about it, didn’t know what it was but I like to think of it as being proactive so that we don’t have a midlife crisis. I kind of use those juices in that chapter two kind of talk about how to deal with a quarter life crisis,  what it means but you’ll have to read it to see what I have to say on it.

ZACH: What does “can’t even” mean to you?

TRACI: What it means to me is…. Can’t even fathom, can’t even deal. Like, I just love that it ends with “can’t even”. We’re all about acronyms and abbreviations and little yolo sayings for everything. That’s so millennial of us. But I think it’s how we express ourselves without getting into the nitty gritty. Right? I can’t even… I can’t even!

ZACH: I noticed that you love to travel and you travelled to over 30 countries. For someone like me who hasn’t really travelled a lot. I don’t know about you but I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection. I just turned 30 years old so I’m going through a quarter life crisis. So I’m like, okay you know I’m doing good in this area, I’m doing good in this area, I’m doing great in this area. This is where I’m weak. This is where you know I haven’t been the best and my number one goal and my number one passion now is to travel for the next five years. I need to experience and see places that are going to blow my mind because I know that that is going to get me closer to God. That is going to help me step into the greatest version of myself. I’ve lived in Palm Beach, Florida my whole life. I’m here and this is like a bubble. Everyone has Ferraris and Rolexes and I can’t keep up with that and I don’t want to keep up with that. But one thing I do want to do is I want to be the best person to live my best life and I think travelling is the one thing that I haven’t really explored. I had a great college experience. I built two businesses you know, I have great habits. I’m in a good financial spot, but it’s like what else is there for me to do and it’s travel. So tell me, what is your favorite country and what did you learn?

TRACI: Oh my goodness, that is such a hard question because I’ve loved so many. My favorite one I ever went to was New Zealand and I think it is just so underrated like people talk about going to Australia all the time, but New Zealand, we went to Queenstown and I felt so off the grid there. We were actually where they like film Game of Thrones so just like imagine that scenery and you’re like this is unreal. This is the world I live in and it makes me so upset that people don’t get to experience that. Don’t get to have that life experience with these places that you can become so in tune with yourself and get away from all the technology and just kind of get back to your roots. So Queenstown was my favorite honestly because I felt off the grid and it was completely different than any other city, place, fantastic beach, yacht, whatever I’d ever been to it was the opposite of that and for that reason I loved it. Yeah, you have to go there. 

ZACH: Well yeah I’m definitely going to go. I’m doing an Ironman race. Right now I’m spending a lot of time training for an Ironman so my race is not until May 23rd in Oklahoma. I plan the next day a one-way flight to Hawaii. I’m going to live in Hawaii for a month and I’m going to bring four books and I’m just going to read and surf. Turn off my phone completely disconnect. And then from there I want to continue to go west whether that’s Japan or New Zealand or Thailand and I want to take a bunch of yoga classes in Southeast Asia and then work my way towards Europe and do all those things so if I have any questions about travelling, can I give you a call and ask you?

TRACI:  Absolutely, just to touch on one point you made that I think is important to the audience, you talked about how you feel like every other part of your life feels like accomplished right? You’ve built two businesses, you’ve been very successful and I think that’s so important for people to recognize that whatever part of their life they’re watering that’s the part that’s going to flourish. So I think going forward with you watering this “travelling” and getting closer to God and getting more in tune to yourself you’re going to see that part of your life flourish because without actually doing it it’s hard to have that part of you become new, you know what I mean?

ZACH:  Absolutely, I can only read so many books, it’s about applying wisdom and knowledge to my life. I can know every single personal growth self-development hack in the world but if I don’t apply them to my life every single day it’s just wasted information inside my brain so you’re right I just need a book that flight, get on a plane. Although I do have a little bit of a fear of flying. which is kind, yeah that’s what’s honestly, I don’t want to say the biggest reason, that’s not the biggest reason, I’ve just been spending so much time trying to make money over the past 5 years and just like working hard but that is a little bit of a speed bump that’s in my way. But that’s something that I’m looking forward to overcoming. Like I can’t wait to get on a plane and overcome my fears. I feel it’s going to be so empowering, it’s going to be so liberating. I’m going to feel so free that I overcame that so I’m really looking forward to my journey travelling but I’m definitely going to call you and ask you for any advice on ways I should travel.

TRACI: Please do, I was actually a flight attendant on private jets for 5 years so I travelled for a living, you’ll be fine. Planes are way safe. Way safer than cars at any point. So just keep that in mind. I guarantee you’ll be good, it’ll totally all be worth it.

ZACH: It will be so worth it. On that note, I need to take one minute to allow a word from our sponsor WHOOP. Whoop is your favorite fitness, sleep and activity tracker. Head on over to join.whoop.com/zachrance to get your free WHOOP strap and first month free. Or visit LifeCoachZach.com/Whoop.

ZACH: Traci, it’s been so great having you today. Everyone go to tracipropst.com so you can buy her book, schedule a call. Traci is there anything else you want to add today?

TRACI: No, guys have a great day, make the most of it and Zach thank you so much for having me on your Podcast, I really appreciate it. 

ZACH: Traci it’s been a pleasure honestly this is probably the best episodes I’ve recorded in my short career as a Podcaster. Yeah, I feel like there was so much valuable information that the audience can get from it. It’s inspiring me to continue to do what I’m doing and continue to follow my passion or my soon to be passion for travel. And I’m looking forward to connecting again.

Have a wonderful day, enjoy the rest of your week.

Traci can be found online at:

www.tracipropst.com

Instagram: @tracipropst

Sept 29, 2020: In this episode I have the lovely Goddess Jasmine Rasco as my guest! Jasmine is someone who helps women discover their inner power and guide them in areas they are wanting to improve their life. She also has her own podcast called Habits of A Goddess. Jasmine shares daily affirmations to help with mental health self-care and self-love, and in this episode we talk about her affirmations and how we can utilize self-love to bring our greatest version of ourselves into every single room we walk into.

Jasmine: Hello 

Zach: Hey Jasmine this is Zach, how are you doing? 

Jasmine: I’m doing great, how are you doing?

Zach: I’m really well, thank you for asking.

Zach: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, how’s your day going so far?

Jasmine: My day is going amazing, I have been doing a lot of meditating, getting ready. It’s been raining here in Atlanta, Georgia so today is kind of like chores a little.

Zach: So tell me about your mediation practice?

Jasmine: In the morning, it’s like a routine for me now but in the morning I like to listen to my podcast or Abraham Hicks or Bob Baker and I like to just kind of have it playing in the background as I start my day. I start listening while laying down but I eventually get up and start my day, shower, brush my teeth, get dressed and I have it playing throughout the morning. For me it helps me start my day on a good note. 

Zach: Yeah I love that. I’ve actually been meditating for about 4 years now and I’ve experienced different types of meditation but I agree with you it’s so important to start it early it just really sets the tone for the day.

Jasmine: Yes I definitely agree 

Zach: So you say that you help women discover their inner power and guide them on the areas they are wanting to improve in their life. Tell me a little more about that.

Jasmine: Yes, I started my journey about 5 years ago when I started working on myself and I started going to a therapist. I started working and healing my inner child, working on things and I noticed the changes in my personal life and I know it came from tapping into my inner self going back and pulling out that power that we all have within ourselves to become the best version of ourselves. That started attracting women to my page asking me for guidance on how they could become a better version of themselves. They noticed the light, I didn’t need to go around with a sign saying “Hey I made a change in my life”. It was just obvious from women watching me on social media. So I had women dm me and share personal stories with me that they felt could relate based off of my personal growth and my story. I just started helping them and working on things that they wanted to work on in their life, just helping them become a better version, mentally, spiritually and physically as well.

Zach: I love that. I love that. It’s funny, I think we actually have a lot more in common than you think. Because I did the exact same thing. I just started focusing on myself and how I could live my best life. How I could be the greatest version of myself and people started taking note and people started reaching out.  “Zach, how did you make this change?” “Zach, how did you know XYZ” and just like you said, you didn’t have to walk around with a sign or tell people it was just obvious.

Zach: What do you think was the biggest Difference Maker for you that led you to here. 

Jasmine: The biggest difference,  I would say, is when people that met me in the beginning of my journey, they knew about me growing up losing both of my parents at a young age. They knew about me becoming homeless and they new about me, you know, just having kind of a difficult childhood and how growing into a young adult just overcoming challenges. When they saw the things that I accomplished on my own, of course with God’s help, but like things I’ve accomplished, like starting a business and sharing more of who I am on social media. When they saw me going to my therapist and how I would say she was a breath of fresh air in their life. When they saw that? I think that was kind of like what clicked, the shift. It was a 5 year journey for me. I was doing these little small tasks, going to therapy, healing myself, doing things I’m passionate about, meditating, reading books that helped my personal development. Those were like little things that added up to the big change. No one saw those things because it wasn’t behind the scenes, you know? But someone from the outside would be like Oh My God like she was here and now she’s here. For me it was those small habits that I created daily, you know, just really focusing on myself. I’m very ambitious and focused on my job and things that truly make me happy and giving back in any way that I can whether it’s either helping other women online. So that was like the big shift just working on myself. I will say this. 3 years ago I looked up Les Brown, I don’t know if you know who he is, he’s a motivational speaker. I started listening to this man every morning, every night. I was hooked on him. One day he came to our church. I got the opportunity to listen to him live and it just clicked with me. Like I wanted to change. I wanted to change my situation. I believe in affirmations. That was the thing that started the snowball effect with me. 

Zach: Absolutely…. I love that. So many things came together and just opening your eyes to one thing and going down this journey opened you up to something else. And there’s just all these variables that are involved and when you really put them all together they start to click.

Jasmine: Yes, it all comes into alignment. 

Zach: It all comes into alignment. You just have to tap into the right thing and whether that’s mediation or finding passion from Les Brown or through the struggles. I want to commend you and acknowledge you for all the struggles that you’ve been through and you know just putting one foot in front of the other and getting to where you are today is already a huge success but no, you’re taking it 10 steps further to make a profound impact on this Earth and help women and help people online to live their best life and step into the greatest version of themselves so whether it’s this that X Y or Z doesn’t matter what your motivation is as long as you’re being a better version of yourself in and your making a lasting positive impact on the world, that’s all that really matters. So I’m really so so happy for you that you stepped into this new version of yourself and this is just the beginning for you 

Jasmine: Thank you, thank you 

Zach: You also told me how you share daily affirmations to help women with mental health, self care, and self-love and I was going to ask you what’s your favorite affirmation but I know you probably have so many, but tell me a little bit more about your affirmations and what are some of your favorite affirmations and how do they help other people.

Jasmine: Yes, so I started a podcast called Habits of a Goddess and I noticed for me, that was like part of my transformation, like affirmations, finding something I can consume that’s healthy that’s going to improve my life. I started that during quarantine. I noticed a lot of people, not just women, a lot of people were dealing with mental health. They were so used to like a routine or so used to going into work, they were so used to you know doing stuff and now you’re kind of like stuck at home and I know for me like if whenever I got on social media I didn’t have to look for it but like so much trauma was just going on online like you couldn’t escape it. You know killings, shooting, bystanders you know filming that. So I was feeling taxed heavily on my soul just on social media with that so I felt like I needed to create something. I do this on my own but like I felt like I needed to create something that I do but put a twist on it and share it with my audience and share it with the women that follow me. So I created Habits of a Goddess. I want to show you can create healthy habits daily, make it a lifestyle. Implement in your life like don’t just, you know, do it one time and put it back on the Shelf, like make this a daily thing this is a lifestyle this is not something that you can just do for 90 days and that’s it.  So I started with self-love affirmations cuz the majority of the women that would reach out to me it all was kind of like around the same rooted topic self-love. One of my favorite affirmations I would have to say is “Everything is working out for me. I am loved. I am a Divine Goddess.  I know from me that for me is like affirmation of letting me know that I am worthy. I’m a Divine Goddess and despite what’s going on in the world you have to pour into yourself. You have to find that balance in your life because so much is moving fast paced.  We don’t have time to process things and you know my affirmations, the feedback I’ve been getting back from the women, they’ve been telling me, it’s very calming, it’s very soothing and that was my goal. Despite what’s going on in the world today that you have something that you can listen to, that I calm you, that can soothe you, that can nurture your soul, your mind and help you conquer your day you know?

Zach: Absolutely I loved all those affirmations that you mention and I’m someone who uses affirmations religiously and I am someone who….  I want to first mention everything you discuss regarding habits and how habits, it’s a lifestyle change like you’re not just trying to do this for the next 90 days like you said. This is something that you’re going to do for the rest of your life until the day you die. I’m someone who wakes up religiously at 5am and I go to the gym and meditate and read 20 pages of a non-fictional personal growth self-development book every day and I have my night routine. All these habits are helping me get to where I need to be, but I’m not doing it to get to somewhere else I’m doing this because I’m trying to make a lifestyle change so I love how you mention habits and then about the affirmations, like it doesn’t matter how you get that feeling as long as you get that feeling that you are loved and you do matter and you are making a difference. Whether you have to tell it to yourself to make you believe it or you have to watch a movie or listen to someone else to make you believe it. As long as you believe it that’s all that matters because that true belief that underlying faith and hope that you can do this or things are going to get better and that you have people around you that support you is what’s going to help you act and choose and decide and lead powerfully and bring your best self into the next room you walk into and help someone else that needs a helping hand. You know some people think affirmations don’t work or it’s voodoo type stuff but look, if you look yourself in the mirror and you tell yourself something and you actually believe it? You are going to change your life immediately.

Jasmine: Yes. You have to reprogram your mind like it has to be a shift,  like it’s a mental thing. It has to be a shift. I like to fall asleep sometimes listening to something geared towards whatever I want to work on. I was my first project I guess. I know if it changed me it can change anyone! 

Zach: Absolutely wow that was great. That’s such powerful stuff right there. Is there anything you want to leave with the audience for them to either connect with you or maybe some last words to inspire

Jasmine: Yes I definitely want to say this. I know that sometimes you know when you’re starting a journey like this on improving your life, personal development. It can be overwhelming, listening or hearing people say I do this everyday or I read this… I read that.  I will say start simple.  Don’t try to consume everything at once. Don’t overwhelm yourself whether it’s you know five minutes in the morning meditating,  like start with that. Whether it’s reading a chapter a day or page a day like whatever you can do to start just do that. Don’t try to become this guru overnight like for meditating and you know just start simple and then build up on it. Don’t let it intimidate you.  I see a lot of times, I get a lot of questions asking “what did you do?” “What was a big thing that you did that changed” There was no big thing. I did not hit this Lottery like there was no big thing. It was small habits and they all collectively came together and helped transform my mindset and I view life so differently.  I just have more understanding and I’m able to help women now because it’s like I know exactly where you’re coming from because I used to think that way too as well. You know.

Zach: Absolutely you’re so right it’s all about starting off small, staying consistent and building from there.

Jasmine: Yes 

Zach: Don’t overwhelm yourself people. Don’t overwhelm yourself, if you’re trying to build a new habit of reading, just read one page today, two pages tomorrow three pages the next day. If you’re trying to create a habit of meditation? Meditate for 1 minute today, two minutes tomorrow, three minutes the next day and that consistency is what’s going to build that foundation for you to vertically scale not only your life but your business but most importantly your happiness.

Jasmine: Yes, your happiness is so important that inner peace is so important and if anything costs you your peace it costs too much.

Zach: Wise words right there… Yes if it costs you your peace, it costs too much! Wow I like that… Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast

Jasmine: Thank you 

Zach: It was a pleasure having you Jasmine, we will connect after this call. If you want to tell everyone your Instagram handle so they can follow you, I’ll put it in the description, but if you have anything else that you want them to check out let them know.

Jasmine: Yes for sure, you can follow me on instagram @habitsofagoddess My podcast is Habits of Goddess and Instagram handle is @habitofagoddess as well. If you like to work with me on coaching you can contact me through my website Habitsofagoddess I work with all women from all different paths in life.

Zach: Jasmine thank you so much for coming. I hope that you have an incredible day and I look forward to talking to you again soon. 

Jasmine: Thank you Zach…