Ep. 22: Are You Standing In Your Own Way?
Hi! I’m excited to be back with more episodes for the Undiscovered Worth Podcast. In this episode, I bring you up to speed on what’s new (and the same) since the last episode aired in Fall 2022. I also talk about my quest to divest from capitalism, seek authentic wellness, and read an excerpt from a Five-Minute Letter I sent to the community a few weeks ago about standing in our own way.
The next series of episodes will be all about various topics related to authentic wellness — mainly how we can practice authentic wellness in a world that seems hellbent on keeping us unwell for profit and control. I’m excited to have a number of guests join me to discuss, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
I’d love to hear from you. Let’s stay in touch:
Email: kashara@kasharajohnson.com
Instagram: @kashara_johnson
TikTok: @kasharajohnson
Subscribe to Five-Minute Letters:
If you liked this episode, subscribe to Five-Minute Letters to receive personal letters from me straight to your inbox every 1st and 3rd Friday. Read through past letters on my website for a sneak peek of what you’ve been missing.
Episode Transcript
Hey, Happy New Year! I hope that you had a really restful holiday season; it's honestly pretty hard to believe that we're even in 2024, but here we are.
So, the last season of the Undiscovered Worth Podcast was shared in the Fall of 2022. And since then, lots of things have changed. I've appeared in my career to more align with my love of storytelling. I've traveled a good bed. I've launched a product line which was on my bucket list. But also, lots of things have stayed the same. You know, I'm still writing. I'm still circling around perfectionism and my inner critic, though, now in different ways. I'm still keeping up with my hobbies, like tending to my plants, though I have added collecting vinyl records, which has been really fun.
Many of the episodes I've shared previously have been broken down into seasons centered on a theme. This next series of episodes will also be tied together. Some of them will be solo episodes — a good number of them will be. But some of them will also include conversations that I've had with people in my life that I've just met and others that I've known for a little while. Still, they will mostly talk about how people navigate living authentically, how they do it on their terms, and how we can navigate through this world the best we can.
The Challenge to Show Up For Others and Myself
For the last several months, maybe even a year, I've been looking out at the world, trying to make sense of it while also trying to strike the right balance between showing up for others, as well as showing up for myself. And truthfully, I still haven't found the answer. And I'm starting to believe that there is no perfect balance, and maybe we just teeter from one side to the other perpetually.
Either way, I am on a journey of actively divesting from this machine that is capitalism in any way that I can. And that's also included reclaiming wellness. It's crazy to think about the lengths that capitalism will go to infiltrate anything that's good and healthy for the sole purpose of profiting. But it's also just a sad truth. The wellness industry makes multi-billion dollars annually, yet when I look up and out into the world, it doesn't really seem like anyone is any happier or less lonely.
Therapy was my saving grace. But being the person I am, or at least have been in the past, and I always look to go above and beyond to optimize myself and self-improve endlessly. And so over the last few years, I've felt that to do that — to "maximize" my wellness, I needed to read self-help books, take so many classes, follow influencers on social media, and do so many things. Yet aside from therapy, I only really experienced marginal results from those other methods.
Reclaiming Ourselves Through Authentic Wellness
And because of that, my core question is why? Why are we only marginally happier despite all of the resources available to us? And what does it mean to pursue authentic wellness in the society that we live in currently? And when I say "authentic wellness," I don't mean it in this mainstream belief that there's only one way to be well. I define it as a kind of wellness solely expressed by and for each of us, regardless of status quo or societal expectations. I believe that we can be authentically well, regardless of the racism or sexism that we may experience daily. It exists steadfastly regardless of what's happening "out there" in the world.
Authentic wellness is a human right that we are all entitled to. And when I meet limitations or obstacles by our capitalistic, patriarchal, white supremacist society to be well, I know that I have something inside that cannot be taken. And when I feel like I've faltered in my assuredness, I can always return to myself and reclaim that.
So, I wanted to share an excerpt of the Five-Minute Letter I sent a couple of weeks ago. It's related to today's topic, our natural tendency to try and block ourselves from our own transformation, and really the essence of our authentic wellness. So here it is.
An Excerpt From a Recent Five-Minute Letter on Standing in Our Own Way
When we attempt to block unwanted emotions, we simultaneously block the wanted ones.
We must stay open. Sometimes, it's helpful to imagine myself as a filter. Every day, I meet life experiences, emotions, all types of other debris, and nutrients that I must filter through my system to continue the flow of energy and life. When I avoid sifting through the unpleasant, I'm also preventing the nutrients and transformational life experiences from coming through and nourishing me, too.
In which areas of your life are you standing in your own way? Where are you holding back?
I'm not asking you this to encourage you to work harder or be more productive — a message that is being shouted at us everywhere, especially this time of year. I, myself, am actively divesting from the capitalist machine and its false sense of urgency.
I ask because if we don't reflect occasionally, it's easy to forget that we're just one choice from doing things differently. We don't have to keep ourselves chained to what's dragging us down. We can choose to let go of toxic people and environments. We can also release outdated attachments or beliefs.
That is the kind of work I'm willing to invest more into my life. Life can be so abundant if we step aside and let its force carry us.
So that's really the kind of energy I'm trying to carry into this year. 2023 was a year of growth. But 2024 is a year of stepping out of my own way as much as I can. And so I want to pose to you those same questions that I posed to the Five-Minute Letter community.
In which areas of your life are you standing in your own way?
And where are you holding yourself back?
These areas can be big or small. You could be standing fully in front of the door. Or you could have your foot in the doorway to trip yourself up as you take that brave or necessary next step. I personally have stood in a full range of positions in my own doorway.
I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to send me your responses via social media or email, which will be in the show notes. And since I mentioned Five-Minute Letter — Five-Minute Letter are sent every 1st and 3rd Friday. I send emails to this growing organic community, which is exciting, where I share my thoughts and lessons learned about life and how to navigate it.
So, I invite you to join. The subscription link is also in the show notes. It feels really good to be back. I hope you stick around. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate, subscribe, and share.
Alright, take care. Bye.