From Slay & Thrive To Embodied Warrior Podcast
The Rebirth Episode: 7 Roadblocks & The Embodied Warrior Manifesto
In this episode, I share:
The evolution from Slay & Thrive to Embodied Warrior (and why this shift matters)
My personal story—from fitness coach to spiritual teacher
Why self-improvement alone isn’t enough for lasting transformation
The 7 Roadblocks of the Embodied Warrior—and how they might be showing up in your life
A fresh lens on burnout, resistance, perfectionism, and feminine reclamation
The core manifesto behind this new season of the podcast
The 7 Roadblocks We Explore:
Fixing yourself instead of creating your dream life
Conditional self-love based on "doing everything right"
Repeating old patterns when you're about to expand
Knowing your potential—but being blocked from it
Burnout from all-or-nothing cycles and unrealistic energy expectations
Over-identifying with hustle, control, and toxic productivity
Fearing the full power of your feminine essence
Transcript
Welcome to the show, Embodied Warrior.
I am celebrating you for being here in this magical moment in time, and I’m so grateful to have you tuning in to this episode.
This one’s special—because it’s a rebirth episode.
If you’re listening for the first time, I am SO happy to have you here. And maybe you’ve been around for a while... this show was once the Slay & Thrive Podcast, and it began in 2021. I know some of you tuned in to every episode, sent me messages about your breakthroughs, and poured so much love into this space. If that’s you, I appreciate you more than words can say—and I truly believe this new iteration of the show is going to serve you even more than the last.
In this inaugural episode, I’m doing something I was afraid to do in the previous version of this podcast. I’m sharing who this show is for—knowing full well it won’t be for everyone.
But if you’re someone who’s done the surface-level stuff, if you’ve read the books and followed the five-step frameworks and checked all the boxes... and you still feel like something deeper is calling you...
If you want more than quick-fix hacks or cookie-cutter formulas with “guaranteed or your money back” results...
If you crave depth... if you know that transformation isn’t linear but cyclical...
If you’re done pretending you’re not powerful AF and you’re ready to own every single thing you desire in this life...
This is your show.
For those who are new here, a little about me: I come from a personal training and health coaching background. I worked at a private studio for over six years. I’ve got all the certifications in eating psychology, in nutrition. I’ve worked with hundreds of clients.
And in that world, I was kind of happy. It was fine. I had clients I adored, an amazing employer, and a supportive team of coworkers.
But while I was there, my own struggles with food resurfaced. I burned out—more than once. I often felt this restless whisper in my soul... like maybe personal training alone wasn’t the thing. Like there was something missing. Something deeper. Something that created lasting change beyond the physical.
So I went deeper. I studied shadow work. I got intimate with resistance and why people know what to do but still don’t do it. I explored healing modalities and created programs that helped people shift on deeper levels.
And still—I had to go through my own dark night of the soul this past year to put a few final puzzle pieces together. To understand why the burnout kept happening. To uncover my true purpose in this lifetime.
This show is the byproduct of that work.
And my intention is that this isn’t just a podcast. It’s a power portal. A movement. A space for Embodied Warrior Queens to rise—to show up for their lives with radical presence and power.
This is where you learn to stop fearing your intensity. To stop apologizing for your emotional depth, your wildness, your passion, your full-spectrum energy... and instead, to own it. To alchemize it. To channel it into your dreams, your creativity, your legacy.
This is a show about deep health—not just physical, but mental, emotional, and spiritual. It’s a show about food freedom—but also about freedom on every level.
It’s about growth, transformation, alignment, self-expression, and manifesting big, wild, audacious dreams.
And here’s the thing about self-expression and dream life creation: it’s so much more easeful when your physical body feels healthy, energized, and alive.
I recently read a beautiful book called Venus by Lisa Lister, and there’s one line that stuck with me:
“Your body is the mystery school.”Let that land.
This isn’t a space for passive consumption. You won’t just think about ideas here—you’ll embody them. You’ll take aligned action that shifts your reality.
Each episode will have journal prompts and embodied action steps at the end—so stay tuned for those. I’ve also created a space at embodiedwritingwarrior.com where you’ll find transcripts, show notes, and all the journal prompts. The link to that is in the show description.
Now... in this first episode, I want to share seven of the most common roadblocks that the Embodied Warrior faces.
And let me be clear: this isn’t about pushing pain points or trying to make you feel broken.
There are no perfect humans. You won’t be the first—and neither will I. We all have challenges. And honestly? If we didn’t, life would be more boring than sitting outside and watching grass grow.
I’m sharing these roadblocks because this show is here to help you move through them. To alchemize them. To turn them into fuel for your evolution.
You might hear me name one—or all seven—and get full-body chills. You might feel your heart crack open or get butterflies in your stomach as you imagine a life on the other side of these patterns.
As I share them, I want you to imagine what it would feel like to spin each one into a vehicle for growth—so that they become your greatest gifts.
Then, I’ll share the seven core principles behind this new iteration of the podcast—the guiding manifesto of the Embodied Warrior. That’ll give you a deeper sense of what this show is all about and what you can expect from the episodes to come.
But first—let’s begin with the seven roadblocks.
The Seven Roadblocks of the Embodied Warrior
1. You're trapped in cycles of fixing yourself instead of creating the life you actually want.
You might identify as a self-improvement junkie of sorts. You’ve read all the books. You’ve meditated, journaled, exercised, written down your goals, taken the bubble baths… all in hopes that eventually, you'll become this flawless version of yourself — the woman who never gets angry, never breaks a promise to herself, always follows through, and never, ever makes a mistake.
In this mindset, anything that makes you human — anything that feels messy, raw, or imperfect — becomes a fire you feel you HAVE to put out before you're allowed to go after the life you want.
This is perhaps the biggest roadblock of all. If you clear this one, many of the others begin to dissolve on their own.
When you're in a fixing mentality, you're hyper-focused on the very thing you want to eliminate — and what we focus on expands. Your brain will scan for that issue constantly, noticing every tiny instance of it and amplifying its presence in your life.
And even if your fixing works? All you’re left with is the absence of a problem — not the presence of your deepest desires.
This is Roadblock #1: Operating from a mentality of fixing and problem-solving, instead of stepping into your powerful creator energy.
2. You're only kind to yourself when you're "doing everything right" — but spiral into self-judgment the moment you slip.
Self-compassion feels effortless when you're checking all the boxes. When you're doing all the “right things,” it’s easy to feel proud of yourself.
But the moment you falter, your inner critic kicks in hard — sending you into a spiral of shame and self-judgment that keeps you stuck in the very patterns you want to leave behind.
Here’s the truth: You’re not here to become a machine-like version of perfection so that only then you’re allowed to love yourself.
You’re here to soften into your humanity — to love and care for yourself just as deeply on your “hot mess” days as you do on your “unstoppable warrior queen” days.
Both versions are worthy of affection. And the more love you give the messy parts of you, the more they’ll feel safe to rest — and let your Warrior Queen lead once again.
3. You take amazing care of yourself — until you try to expand… then your old patterns come roaring back.
Maybe this has happened before:
You finally break through in that one area where you’ve always struggled the most — food, money, relationships, whatever it might be. You feel free. Empowered. Ready.
Now the world is yours. You’re finally ready to claim the boldest dreams you have for your life.
And then… the pattern returns.
Maybe it's more intense. Maybe you just feel it more, because now the stakes are higher. The disappointment cuts deeper. You feel hopeless. Frustrated. So you go back into fixing mode. You find new tools. You have another breakthrough. This one feels like the one.
You go after your dream again — and again, the habit resurfaces.
But here's the twist: the pattern isn’t the problem. You already have the tools to be free of it. What’s really happening?
The pattern is keeping you safe. It’s protecting you from stepping into a bigger, scarier version of yourself — one that’s uncertain, expansive, and wildly alive.
So the real work here isn’t fixing the pattern — it’s devoting yourself to your dreams so completely, but also gently and realistically, that you’re able to hold the uncertainty that expansion brings.
When you can do that — the patterns fade. Because you no longer need them.
4. You’re deeply frustrated because you know your potential — but all you see are the blocks standing in your way.
You wouldn’t have these big dreams and wild desires if they weren’t meant for you.
You know what you’re capable of. You’ve got receipts. A track record of accomplishments that would make someone’s head spin. You’ve seen what you can do when the conditions are right.
And yet — you’re still stuck. Still battling the same energy leaks, the same self-sabotage, the same doubt. It feels like you’re three feet from gold… but those three feet feel like three thousand miles.
You know who you could be without all these blocks. And you haven’t figured out how to fully reclaim that version of you… yet.
Keyword: Yet.
5. You struggle with all-or-nothing patterns and burnout because you expect your energy to be steady and constant all the time.
You’ve been taught that if you want to create an epic life, it’s going to require everything — your time, your energy, your emotional bandwidth, your capacity for discomfort.
And that’s true — but only partially.
Because here’s what usually happens: You do give it your all. But without gentleness, your wholehearted devotion becomes desperation. You start forcing results, chasing outcomes, and believing you need to quantum leap from where you are now into some idealized version of your life.
That’s the fast track to burnout.
What you actually need is wholehearted + gentle devotion. Fierce commitment, yes — but paired with softness, compassion, and the wisdom to rest when it’s time to rest.
6. You glorify hard work, hustle, and productivity — to a fault.
You might have an imbalanced (even toxic) relationship with your masculine energy — and it’s not your fault.
We’ve been raised in systems that prioritize doing over being, pushing over receiving, structure over surrender. Even with all the progress we've made toward honoring the feminine, the glorification of effort still runs deep.
And this imbalance creates burnout. It creates disconnection. It strips life of joy, beauty, and meaning.
Because without the feminine, the masculine becomes cold, soulless, and demanding.
The Embodied Warrior is both masculine and feminine. She knows how to do, and she knows how to be. She’s structured and surrendered. She’s strong, and she’s soft. She’s in her body. She’s in her heart. She’s in integrity with both energies — because she’s reclaimed her relationship with them.
We’ll go deeper into this when we talk about the Manifesto.
7. You secretly fear that embracing your full feminine essence will make you weak, indulgent, or hysterical... even though you've had fleeting moments where you felt her power, her magnetism, her magic.
But then, just as quickly, you shut it down. Why?
Because we live in a world where the feminine is often misunderstood, neglected, repressed, or even shamed. And a lot of that programming starts early — from your first experiences with the feminine through your mother or female caregivers.
This is a conversation that deserves its own episode, but for now, maybe you want to start reflecting:
How did your mother or female caretakers relate to their emotions, their bodies, their needs?
What messages did you absorb about femininity just by watching them?
And what did you make it mean?
Regardless of your generation, the women who came before you didn’t have it easy. They were often trapped in systems and roles they didn’t choose — religions cloaked in “good Christian values” but rooted in deep misogyny... cultural expectations that said their worth was tied to marriage, motherhood, and sacrifice.
Many of them gave up their dreams. They swallowed their desires. They dulled their fire.
And honestly? That would make any woman go a little bit hysterical. That pain doesn’t just disappear — it gets passed down. Through rage. Chronic illness. Deep, unexplainable waves of depression.
Maybe you watched this happen and decided, “Nope. Not for me.” So you rejected the feminine altogether and leaned hard into the masculine — logic, structure, performance, action.
But here's the problem...
This overreliance on your masculine side leads to so many of the roadblocks we already talked about — burnout, disconnection, lack of fulfillment, creative paralysis.
And what you were rejecting?
Wasn’t the true feminine.
It was the wounded feminine.
It was the feminine trapped in a cage.
The feminine in her healthy, fully expressed form is a force. She is wise. She is intuitive. She is sensual and soft, yes — but she is also wild, fiery, fierce.
And this show? This space? Is here to help you reclaim her.
So those are the 7 Roadblocks of the Embodied Warrior.
How many of them resonated for you?
You might want to go back and re-listen or reflect on each one in your journal. You can also get the journal prompts for this episode at embodiedwritingwarrior.com/podcast.
Now let’s move into the 7 Core Principles of the Embodied Warrior.
(And I’ll be using “Embodied Warrior” and “Warrior Queen” interchangeably here — both represent the same archetype.)
1. The Warrior Queen undergoes a Heroine’s Journey and knows that her inner world creates her outer world. As within, so without.
On a hero’s journey, it’s all about the external. Conquer the city. Win the prize. Achieve the goal.
The heroine’s journey? She might start out chasing the same thing — the relationship, the business, the title — but eventually realizes, “Wait… I don’t feel how I thought I’d feel.”
She conquered the city but still doesn’t feel powerful. Still doesn’t feel safe. Because she hasn’t become the version of herself who knows how to create those feelings from within. So she turns inward. She reclaims her inner world.
And then her outer world naturally starts to match.
2. The Warrior Queen knows that befriending her body is a revolutionary act.
Get ready because we're going here.
Because this one’s personal, and this might be polarizing, but it's a deeply important topic.
I have the deep privilege of living in Canada, but I have female relatives living in a country where the message is clear:
Your body? Our choice.
It’s horrifying. And one of the most powerful ways we can rebel?
Is to take radical care of our bodies — with love, reverence, and agency.
To make peace with our bodies.
To stop punishing them and start cooperating with them.
To own our pleasure, our health, our power.
Because that is what the system fears most.
There's a lot we can't control right now, but this is one place where we do have power.
3. The Warrior Queen builds intentional rituals, not obligation-based habits.
Let’s take meditation as an example:
From a habit mindset: “I should do this. Everyone says it’s good for me. Maybe it’ll finally stop me from being so anxious and emotional.” (Feel the pressure and self-judgment baked into that?)
From a ritual mindset: “I love this sacred part of my morning. I light my candle, sit in my favorite chair, and come home to myself.”
The Warrior Queen doesn’t just care about what she’s doing — she’s devoted to how she’s doing it. Rituals become investments into her joy, nourishment, and self-connection — not just checkboxes on a to-do list.
4. The Warrior Queen cultivates a healed inner relationship between her masculine and feminine energy.
This means your masculine isn’t there to bully or suppress your feminine. He’s there to protect her. To serve her. To help her express.
So when sadness arises? Your masculine can guide you to journal or make art.
When anger arises? He helps you channel it into a workout or passion project.
At first, it might feel like a pendulum swing — from shutdown to overflow. That’s normal. Over time, this relationship matures — and your inner harmony becomes a source of true power.
5. The Warrior Queen validates herself from within. Period.
This one hits close to home. Last year, I tried to rebrand this podcast. I thought I was ready to rebirth it… but I was still in a death phase.
I hit publish on those rebranded episodes, and my downloads dropped in half.
And I let it wreck me. Because I didn’t fully know how to validate myself from within yet. I was still attached to performance, popularity, approval.
But not anymore. Now, I don’t care how many people this show reaches — because the right ones? Will find it.
This show isn’t for everyone.
It’s not for the snorkelers.
It’s for the deep-sea scuba divers.
The ones brave enough to go into the Mariana Trench of their soul to find the real treasure.
You're here because deep down, you know how worthy and powerful you are and you're ready to stop letting anything outside of you take that inner knowing away.
6. The Warrior Queen is unapologetic about her boldest goals and biggest dreams.
Here, we reclaim the word crazy. Yes — you’re crazy. Crazy passionate. Crazy free. Crazy visionary. Crazy alive.
You get to be all of you here. And nobody in this space is going to tell you you’re too much — because we’ve all been there.
And we’re here to celebrate the full, unleashed version of you.
7. The Warrior Queen is fully resourced — drawing on the power of all four elements.
🔥 Fire: Bold action, passion, power.
🌍 Earth: Grounded structure, body wisdom, safety.
💨 Air: Clear thinking, expansive ideas, empowering narratives.
🌊 Water: Emotional flow, sensuality, self-nurturing.
This elemental lens is woven into everything we do here — and it’s a powerful framework for transformation.
That’s a wrap for this episode. I am so delighted to be back behind the mic. There is so much magic coming your way.
Thank you for being here. I’ll see you in the next one.
Journal Prompts:
Which of the seven roadblocks resonated most with you? Why?
How might you alchemize these roadblocks into tools for growth?
What are the desires you’ve been holding back on pursuing? What has been stopping you from fully claiming them
How can you step into your desires with radical presence and power, instead of letting them feel like pipe dreams?
Embodied Action Steps:
Reclaim Your Desires:
Choose one desire you’ve been putting off and take one aligned action toward it today—no matter how small.
Create Your Sacred Ritual:
Take a moment to create a new ritual for yourself, whether it’s a morning routine, a movement practice, or something else that brings you peace and power. Write out how you’ll make it sacred.
