Wow it feels great to be back on the pod – a little surreal, a little unfamiliar, but mostly really awesome. If you are new here, I am bringing you the Loving Your Own Soul podcast after a year and a half break! My last episode was October 22, 2021, as my intention was to take a short pause for the holiday season, recalibrate, and properly close out the year. All while gaining clarity for the next. 
 
And clearly – life had other plans, but that’s why I feel it is SO important to keep things fluid and to flow as best as possible without putting force or pressure on something that needs to sit and pause for a bit… Such as this podcast, there were many times that I could have brought the show back – but I didn’t because it didn’t feel right.  And now it feels so right.
 
So, if there’s something in your life that you might be forcing or feeling like you must do right now – take a moment to ask yourself what might happen if you just pause. (What might happen) If you stop forcing and just give some space between you and your thing you are trying to make happen. 
 
Before we hit the ground running, let me fill you in on a couple updates. After all it’s been awhile and I feel like it makes sense to first connect back to where we left off, before I fill you in on ALL the experiences, moments, and events that have transpired over the last … 18-ish months. 
 
We left off in October of 2021 which at this point feels like a lifetime ago if I’m being honest. And I’m sure it probably does for you too – life moves fast nowadays. 
 
And if you don’t keep this is a frequent practice, I highly recommend adding the tool of reflection into your wellness toolbox. Reflection is a simple yet powerful self-development and discovery tool – I’ll show you how it works in just a moment. But if you aren’t familiar with idea of reflecting back to certain periods of your life you can think of it as taking a bird’s eye viewpoint (zooming out) on a certain time in your life and looking at all that has transpired since that very moment. Honoring both the positives, the negatives, the lessons, and the gifts.
 
So, let’s take October 2021 for instance. Not just for me but for you – what I’m about to share could be some beneficial journaling prompts so feel free to take notes if you aren’t driving right now. 
 
Looking back to October of 2021 - Who were you in that moment of time vs. who are you now?  What were your future visions and do any of them match where you are now? Would you back then have ever guessed you’d be where you are right now in this very moment? What have you learned? What have you grown through? Can you count your blessings or compare your wins and losses?

• Like I said use these as journaling prompts to practice your own life’s reflection or simply pause this episode to take a moment to reflect. 

 
This is a powerful tool so don’t skip over this. I encourage you to bookmark this to practice for another time. 
 
When I look back, and to the last episode of the podcast, I can immediately timeline jump backwards to where I was in that very moment and exactly what I was desiring for the future to hold.  And because life is a constant ball of mystery, I can tell you there are several things in my life today that have manifested into creation and there are several things that me back then could have NEVER imagined would be part of my story …. but that is the paradox of life, right? 
 
Today, in this episode, I’m going to give you the cliff notes on where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to in combination with a few experiences and details that I will leave private and sacred to my own human experience too. I might end up sharing later or I may never and that’s okay.  That is my choice. It is my life and my right to choose what I share publicly – just like it is your choice too.
 
We live in a time where everyone is sharing everything all the time and for a lot of us it strengthens our connection to those around us as well as with ourselves – and that’s a beautiful thing – but on the other side of that … at what point are we checking in to make sure our life is still our life to be lived? At what point are we discerning between what the world gets to know about us and what is private to our own individual stories? 
 
I don’t have the answers here and nor do I believe there is one right or wrong way to go about things – in fact what’s right vs. wrong is actually highly subjective. What might feel right to me can feel wrong to you – and that’s perfect. That’s our own two experiences and that’s also why I always encourage you to receive what resonates and leave behind everything else. 
 
Now before I get too far along in this episode, let’s pause for a moment and do a little housekeeping for those of you who are either new to the podcast or me, or simply need a refresher on my intentions and beingness here with you. 
 
While I do not have any current offerings or programs available in this very moment – and this very moment being April 2023, I will tell you that from a career aspect I am a certified holistic wellness, health, and life coach, podcast host, and retreat creator. My mission is to inspire you to enhance your life, recognize your potential, and embody your best self. And my intention is to motivate you to fill yourself up first so that you can show up in integrity to everything else in your life. 
 
I believe we are all meant to fall head over heels in love with our life. I believe the gift of experiencing joy is not only our birthright, but the secret to total wellbeing, abundance, and vitality. I believe that your current life is made up of a series of choices and if you don’t like your current life, you just have to choose differently. Everything is a choice. You get to choose to respond or react to situations. Getting up out of bed at 5am is a choice, just as much as hitting snooze every 10min for the next 45minutes is a choice. Focusing only on what isn’t, misfortune, and all that you don’t have in your life is a choice -> just as much as choosing to focus on what is, and what you do have in your life … is a choice. Everything is a choice, every action you take (or don’t take) is your choice. It’s your life. You are the one living it. And to start making different choices, enhance your life, recognize your true potential, and embody your best self – you must connect to yourself on a deeper level than you ever have before. And I believe, right here, right now … is the time to do so. 
 
Now is the time to start filling yourself up first so that you can show up in integrity to everything else in your life. 
 
And if you need inspiration to get started on realigning your choices, I encourage you to bookmark this podcast as one of your favorites as I’ll be providing tons of motivation and inspiration so that you too can step into your best life. I will be sharing my own experiences in collaboration with other thought leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and everyday human beings. As I’m coming to you from a new season of life, I can’t guarantee specifically when a new episode will drop as it might be weekly, there might be a couple shorts dropping a couple days each week, or there might be a pause in content so that you can take time to integrate and drop out of constant consumption for a period of time. Whatever it looks like, know that I’m here for you, for myself, and our greatest expansion.
 
If you are brand new to me and this show I will tell you that in the middle of my Saturn return and a very pivotal year for our entire world, I started this podcast while in tangent, opened my health and wellness coaching business. My coaching business wasn’t the first business I’d opened at the time as I was also running a marketing and nonprofit strategy company, which I’ve since folded entirely. Prior to my official start as an entrepreneur, I worked my way up the corporate ladder of marketing, event management, and pr for most of my twenties before realizing I was fulfilling the dreams others envisioned for me and was at risk of completely losing any since of inherent self-worth and self-love in the process. I’ve worked with celebrities and professional athletes, flown on the private jets, attended the fancy parties, graduated top of my class, won the awards, and pretty much anything else on paper that might scream SUCCESS in our society. But for me, it wasn’t enough. It didn’t fulfill me at a core, soulful level. So here I am. Always highly ambitious, a go-getter, and at times an overachiever, I put my heart and soul into every endeavor that comes my way. And while it can be exhausting at times, I love that about myself. I have zero regrets in life as each experience and interaction has made me more of who I am today, and I can only imagine where I will be with a few more decades under my belt. Because I personally do not fear getting older as from what I’ve witnessed, life really just continues to get better and that much sweeter with every year. 
 
As I carry a massive passion for health, wellness, vitality, and expansion, I love sharing my fav well-trusted products with you guys. And when I say well-trusted, I mean I have personally vetted them out for you, and THEY work. If you are interested in checking out some of my favorite brands and wellness products, be sure to always check out the show notes for discounts and links. 
 
On the other side of reintroducing myself to you I can tell you that I am a 4/1 Generator from a HD perspective, an Aries sun, Sag moon, and Cancer rising from an astrology perspective. I am a huge wellness enthusiast ready to always try or talk about the latest and greatest, I carry an entrepreneur’s spirit, I absolutely love the water and being in the ocean, surfing is one of my most favorite hobbies. I love food, cooking, trying new flavors and cuisines, figuring out what foods my body likes / doesn’t like, and simply enjoying all that is available to us. I love a good adventure, being on a plane, exploring a new culture and part of the world. I’m very spiritual and open to constant expansion and growth. Quality time is my main love language, and the sunshine is medicinal to me. 
 
I believe that we connect to ourselves through the practice of routines, rituals, and consistently showing up for ourselves. I’ve learned that we must fill ourselves up first to show up for everything else in our life. And because our world is chaotic at times, I developed a simple yet powerful tool so that you always have a way to come back to you. This tool is what I’ve named my MAGIC Ritual. The ritual is made up of 5 simple elements that can be incorporated to your morning or nighttime routine, or daily life and they include meditation, activity, gratitude, intention, and creativity. This is all I will speak to on this for right now, but please stay tuned for an entire podcast episode, or probably several, where we will dive into this entirely. 
 
I am also a wife, and you will likely hear from my partner and husband Dan Olson a few times on the show. You can go back to episodes 89, 74, and 29 if you want to learn about him and our relationship. These are some of my favorite episodes, so I highly recommend checking them out. I also think it’s important for others to get a preview of healthy relationships as well as relationships that are by no means perfect, because perfect is really an illusion.
 
And in real time I’m currently going through my biggest transition and identity realignment of my life … as this past August (August 2022), I became a mom. For those of you who have been with me on my journey the last couple years, I can officially say I am a mom. I am a mom to a wildly beautiful baby girl who has come into this world ready to experience her best lifetime yet. At only 8 months old, she has already brought so much inspiration and learning into my life.
 
___ 
 
 In fact, I intentionally took my annual podcast break the end of October 2021, thinking I was pausing for the rest of the year to then start back up in January, when a few weeks into my annual pause, I learned that I was pregnant! And my pregnancy took me on an interesting ride of immense introspection and self-discovery paired with extreme and almost debilitating at points nausea for the first trimester. And so much more! It was an initiation like no other. 
 
Which I will get into all certain pieces of this experience in a couple upcoming episodes. However, I do want to preface that with this new transition and phase of life I will most likely be sharing more motherhood content on this show. That won’t be the only topic, but it will be very present as this is my biggest spiritual lesson of all time, it’s so multi-layered. I never understood what it would be like until now being it – it’s a ride. It’s beautiful and deeply challenging. And I’ve been shown time and time again how stress and gratitude can comfortably hang out together.  But if you feel called to tune into those more mother/parent/pregnancy/baby conversations and you aren’t yet at that stage of life, please know the context still applies to you as it’s all very metaphorical for life in general. In fact, I used to skip over podcast episodes on these topics and now I see how they probably held lots of wisdom I could’ve now used, but I also wouldn’t have been able to hear them the way I do now. 
 
Anyway – there will be several upcoming episodes to share with you ALL the magic that has transpired these last 18 months, but because I promised this at the beginning. I do want to give you a small cliff notes version, so you aren’t left hanging too much longer or feel like you are stuck in October 2021 with me still. This community is so important to me, and I cherish every single one of you, and while there are some pieces I will be keeping private, it wouldn’t feel authentic to my relationship with you if I didn’t update you as to where I’ve been. 
 
So yes, I found out I was pregnant mid-November 2021 right before heading to Puerto Rico to host my first spiritual wellness retreat and the same week of my original due date of the baby we lost back in the Spring of 2021. Talk about synchronicities. 
 
Although I was so sick for the first trimester of this pregnancy – I still had the utmost honor of hosting 11 beautiful women over 4 days of the Experience MAGIC Spiritual Wellness retreat in Rincon, Puerto Rico.  This retreat was everything I had envisioned and brought to life, and so much more. This first one was so unique in that 11 strangers from around the US and Canada showed up to a place where their souls were reconnected from lifetimes before and 4 days later left the island with friendships that will last this entire lifetime. In fact, the group still meets infrequently (virtually) to connect and several of the women have since connected in person and chat almost weekly. Truly magical. I’ll be recording an entire podcast episode on this experience, the power of community, taking a leap of self-love, being female, etc.  and will be sharing details on future retreats too! 
 
Last April, as we entered the third trimester of my pregnancy, my partner Dan received a job opportunity that arrived completely out of the blue – and of course turned out to be one of those that you just don’t pass off. This experience was such a lesson for both of us on alignment and just how easy life can be if you let it. I believe and have seen how things truly have a way of falling into place if you are open. 
 
So, at about 8 months pregnant, we ended up moving from Florida to Georgia. And I don’t know that I ever really thought I’d be living in Georgia, but I do have to say, now that I’m not sweaty and massively pregnant, I really do love the environment here. It’s a beautiful location, lots of outdoor space and things to do outside. It’s been fun having different seasons and just a change of pace in general. Just as I firmly believe travel is wildly healthy, changing up your environment can be too. 
 
In fact, at the end of this year, we closed on our new home which was another divinely guided experience and was really the cherry on top to a year of FRESH energy. All the new things, all the change, and more in 2022. I had created a vision board going into 2022 and its wild how much of it really played out and manifested into reality this past year. Of course, I didn’t visualize or know the how, but the vision and intention for newness was there and wow did the Universe deliver. 
 
With my pregnancy, aside from being so sick at the beginning, it was a pretty wonderful ride overall. My original due date was the middle end of July, and I was convinced I’d have a Cancer baby. But sure enough, my little love, decided to come in August as a full-blown Leo, waiting right up until the 42 week mark where we had to give her several pushes to get moving and make her way earthside. My labor and delivery, the birth portal, was a whole experience. I felt as though I was overly prepared for birth and truly nothing could have prepared me for what ended up taking place. I will actually be keeping a lot of this experience sacred for now, perhaps one day we will speak more openly about it as it feels good. But I did end up giving birth in a hospital naturally – no c-section. However, it wasn’t the fully unmedicated vision I had been hoping for, but it was exactly as it should have been. I’m the proudest of myself for remaining open and completely in tune with what my body needed throughout the entire process. I was able to use my voice and advocate for myself, while also listening to my own body and being open to what she needed vs. how I thought things would go. My birth plan shifted a lot and I continued to remain in full trust the entire time. And after about 30 hours of labor, in the wee hours of a Thursday morning in August, I gave birth to a marvelous baby girl whom we named Sage. And our worlds have been changed and deeply challenged in the most beautiful way ever since. 
 
And ever since Sage’s arrival into our family unit, I have been moving through the experience of motherhood to the best of my abilities. I’m not going to lie the transition hasn’t been easy. Sage is incredible, truly amazing and an awesome baby whom I’m sure will listen to this one day, so I want to be clear that my transition into motherhood has absolutely nothing to do with her and who she is. In fact, because she’s so incredible, I’m often filled with so much guilt and confusion as to why I’m struggling so much through some areas of this transition. But to be honest, this is just another part of my experience. The first 3 months, that final 4th trimester was glorious and the best step into this new chapter and then suddenly we moved from months 3 – 4 and I feel like my world has radically dropped out from underneath of me and I’ve been trying to find my footing ever since. I will share more in an episode dedicated specifically to postpartum and motherhood as this is such a multilayered topic, but as someone who has always been so fiercely independent, I naively misjudged just how much becoming a mother would radically shake up my world. And I’m not sharing this to scare anyone, but to simply speak openly about my experience because at first, I felt almost lied to in this experience. Like why didn’t anyone tell me this would be so hard? Everyone knows how independent I am, why wasn’t I informed?  Why does having someone so dependent on me (literally I’m her lifeline) feel like the hardest thing I’ve ever done? And the truth is … I wasn’t listening before. You can’t understand becoming a mother until you become one. And it sounds SO cliché but it’s the most truthful thing I know right now. I could have never in a million years known what this would have been like, and no one could have ever told me what my experience would have been like too. And it’s that simple. 
 
And yes, it’s been hard. I’ve been hit with different waves of mental and emotional instability, my hormones have been going crazy, I’ve been triggered in so many new ways paired with so many familiar ways, I feel so responsible for everything … and I’m SO in love. I’m in a different point of love then I have been before, but amidst the fog and sometimes darkness, I’ve never felt more in love with Dan, my new daughter, our family unit than I could have ever imagined. It's a different love because we are different people now. We are in a different phase of life so naturally the love we feel, and give is going to be different, but it’s so rich, so deep, and so beautiful. Becoming a mother changes your life in so many ways, it’s really the biggest spiritual lesson ever (in my opinion).
 
There are more updates I could share from the last 18 months but those feel like the main ones. My business has shifted a lot and I’m still working to see what that will look like, so stay tuned. I’ll share how my own self-care and wellness practices have shifted, and how my spirituality has evolved within me. But for now, I’m focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. We’ve got the podcast back and it feels so incredible. I’m a mom now, I live in a new state, and I’m moving through a massive identity realignment. I’m working to find my footing again and my sense of stability within myself. 
 
There’s never a timeline on a transition or what that phase will look like … so to spare yourself major anxiety and possible depression, if you are going through a transition right now yourself, don’t pressure yourself to move through it too quickly or for it to look a certain way. Allow it to be, to transpire as it should, and to remember that life doesn’t have to be so serious or planned out. Sit back, take a deep breath, and allow yourself to just be in it for a moment. 
 
And if you take anything with you today, I want to remind you of the power you hold with your choices in life. The power that comes back to you when you start choosing yourself. And I hope you will leave this conversation feeling inspired to fill yourself up first, so that you can show up in integrity to everything else in your life. ​

Throughout most of my life I was a very disciplined person, but to a fault. I was an overly disciplined high-achiever and didn’t leave enough room for flexibility and intuition in my life. I was mostly operating from an ego-based place, and it took me going through my dark night of the soul in 2017 to snap back to my truth. Since then, I swung to the complete opposite side of the pendulum swing and didn’t have enough discipline or consistency in my life. *I do not regret any of my experiences as each one has been part of my unique human experience and got me to where I am today.
 
The latter half of this year, I’ve been contemplating and experimenting with the energy of consistency paired with a healthy dose of discipline. What I’ve found is that we all need a certain degree of discipline in our life, you just have to find the dosage that works for you. I’ve found that the more consistent I am with my morning routine, the more I’m able to healthily engage in disciplined ways of moving through my day thereafter. The way I start my mornings bleeds into the energy of my day. And if I want to show up as my best self and feel as good as humanly possible daily, the magic must start in the mornings. If it doesn’t, the entire day is thrown off.
 
For me, waking up ahead of the rest of my family often looks like resisting the urge to drop back into bed after I’ve finished feeding my girl in the wee hours of the morning. Or reminding myself when the alarm goes off at 5am that this might be my only hour to myself today and if I want to be content today, I need to get my butt out of bed. Believe me the coziness of our beds, especially as the winter approaches, is quite tempting and highly appealing. However, what I’ve found to be more appealing is being able to emotionally regulate, feeling a natural sense of happiness, being connected to my intuition and creativity, showing up as my best self in my relationships, and making empowered food choices – to name a few. 
 
At this point you’ve heard about the power of morning routines repeated across every self-help book and podcast, yet you likely still haven’t committed to yourself first thing in the morning. So, if you are still questioning why you haven’t reached your goals or why you still feel so unsettled in your life or why you feel so irritate and anxious … my question to you would be simple: What are you consistently doing for you every morning? 
 
If you want to step into your dreams and desires, you must find an element of discipline in your life to start doing things differently then you’ve previously done them, starting as soon as you get out of bed. You can’t step into a new life if you are still acting in ways that represent your past life. 

This delicious new breakfast recipe came to me in my dream state and I woke up with an inner knowing that I had to try it. As you may know, I'm writing this at about 22 weeks pregnant and typically follow the messages in my dreams very seriously. I follow them even more seriously at this stage of my life, as I've found my spirit baby tries to communicate with me mostly through the dream state. So, you could almost say that perhaps she is the one who created this recipe for us 💖
 
Anyway, I elected to combine my favorite flavors including coconut, cherry, and dragon fruit with the addition of a yogurt and collagen base for extra protein and gut health + hormonal support. I would also like to make note that organic coconut yogurt comes with a host of real health benefits, much different than what greek yogurt has attempted to market itself as.  If you are consuming yogurt, I encourage you to try to consume yogurt that is not made from conventional dairy, is organic, and ideally includes live cultures aka yogurt you can't find at most grocery stores (sadly). 

You'll see I recommend a cocojune yogurt in this recipe, however, for optimal and elevated health benefits I recommend Cocoyo Yogurt. I've listed out my preferred toppings, but feel free to get creative and make this your own! 
 
Be sure to tag me @thebrittolson after you make this as I love seeing your kitchen creations!

​INGREDIENTS: 

• ​4oz cocojune Organic Cultured Yogurt
• 1 scoop collagen powder
• Frozen cherries
• Frozen dragon fruit
• Plant-based milk
• Fresh blueberries
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• Bee Pollen
• Chia seeds
• Hemp hearts

RECIPE: 
​​In a high-speed blender, blend coconut yogurt, collagen, and desired amount of frozen cherries and dragon fruit. *Consistency will vary based on amount of frozen fruit used (hint: intuitively select amounts) and you may need to add a splash of a plant-based milk if necessary.

Add blended base mixture into a bowl and top with desired amount of blueberries, bananas, bee pollen, chia seeds, and hemp hearts! Enjoy!

​I'm so excited to share with you one of my favorite recipes to date, and a recipe that will truly make all of your fall dreams come true. Well, maybe not all of them, but certainly your cozy, comfort food dreams ☺️
 
Combining some of my favorite fall flavors such as pumpkin, sweet potato, thyme, and sage, this pasta recipe is not only delicious but super supportive to your health as well!  I remember a time in my life when I was terrified to eat pasta, thinking I'd gain 10 lbs overnight and considering it to be a “no” food.  Later on, I learned that our bodies actually thrive off of carbs, when given the right balance and nutritional substances. 
 
You'll see I recommend a gluten-free pasta as I've found brown rice, chickpea, or cassava pastas to be the most supportive, but you can add this yummy sauce to any pasta you desire. Plus, if pasta isn't your thing you can actually turn this sauce into a super yummy soup by adding 1 additional cup of vegetable broth before blending. Enjoy! 
 
Be sure to tag me @thebrittolson after you make it as I love seeing your kitchen creations!

RECIPE: 
​​Cook pasta according to packaging and set aside. 

Chop yellow onion and sweet potato and steam for 10min on the stove. 

Dice garlic cloves and add to a small pot with a dash of olive oil and begin to simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth, cashew milk, arrowroot powder, and thyme to pot and cook for an additional 5 minutes on medium low heat, stirring frequently. 

Remove mixture from stove top and add to high speed blender along with canned pumpkin, and steamed sweet potato and onion.  Blend on high until a creamy, sauce like mixture forms. 

Add cooked pasta to a large pot, turning heat to a low simmer to warm. Top pasta with blended sauce, and ground sage and black pepper to taste. Stir, serve desired amounts, and enjoy! 

*You can add 1 additional cup of vegetable broth to the sauce mixture to also create a pumpkin soup if desired.

​Did you know that pumpkin: 

• is high in Vitamin A
• has a high antioxidant content
• can lower your risk of chronic disease
• boots immunity
• protects your eyesight

 
And while you are cooking in the kitchen, be sure to check out one of my recommended podcast episodes below <3

​PSA: It’s okay to eat carbs, bread, and there are no “bad” foods.  For real. 
 
 
If you think I’m crazy for writing this, I get it, I’ve been where you sit too. However, I’d like to remind you that there really aren’t any foods we can’t have. Sure, there may be some foods that don’t work with our individual, particular makeup, sensitivities, or environments we are in during certain periods of time. But there are no bad foods. 
 
For some of us, we have to make certain adjustments to fit our needs but I really believe we never have to completely cancel out a food, especially if we innately enjoy it. 
 
The one thing that is certain, is that we are cyclical creatures, and our food preferences often change with the seasons. For me, fall brings on my need to bake and nothing feels more satisfying than warm banana bread with a honey drizzle and a nice cup of tea as the temperatures slowly drop. 
 
I hope you’ll check out my favorite gluten-free banana bread recipe which you can CLICK HERE to download.  If you make it be sure to take me @thebrittolson on Instagram to share! 
To add some fun to your time baking in the kitchen, I encourage you to check out my latest podcast episode on Loving Your Own Soul! 
 
Cheers! 

The focus on this full moon energy is to connect to your intuition and align to your spiritual center while harvesting the seeds you’ve been planting throughout the year.  

Items to have handy: 

• Journal + something to write with 
• Beverage of choice 
• Space that feels in alignment to you (indoors, outdoors, light, candlelight, dark)
• Energy cleansing agent 
• Crystals to work with  

Ritual:

• Release
• Ground
• Meditate
• Reflect

 
To Begin:

• Cleanse your space and set your intention for this ritual 
• Learn about the Pisces Full Moon energy 

​Full Moon in Pisces is a feminine, watery, dreamy, mystical moon.  Making it such a powerful time for us all to truly dive into our divine feminine, our intuitions, and explore our dreamiest dreams.
 
This moon is here to connect to yourself and spirituality even deeper than you already have.  Deepening that connection with the inner you, your soul beyond your physical body. 
 
Together the moon will fill us with the energy of awakening, bringing us beautiful change and endless possibilities. Providing us a fresh perspective to open us up to a new way of living and a new path to head down.  
 
Remember to remain open to the new, be spontaneous and explore all possibilities. And really take the next couple days to really feel into this powerful energy. 
 
Remember it is never too late to reinvent yourself, you can be whoever you want to be at any point in your life.  This is such a powerful time for dreaming and really bringing our dreams into reality. 
 
With this feminine energy it is even more apparent how connected we all are as females, and I know us as a collective group (if you are reading this) has really felt that energy recently as we are all so much more connected than we truly know. This Pisces full moon is very watery, paving the way for feeling extra emotional these next couple days as well, but it’s okay, nothing to be afraid of, just let it flow. 
Plus, do not forget that our moon is feminine energy as well. I encourage you to really soak up and work with the moon’s energy during this cycle. 

#1 RELEASING
​
If there’s anything you wish to no longer carry with you, now is a great time to release it.  
 
Let’s release what isn’t ours and truly surrender what isn’t.
 
Please take out a loose sheet of paper or pull a piece of paper out of your journal, to release through the act of putting your pen to paper. Think about and write out anything you’ve experienced this week, the last 2 weeks, month, even the last 6 months. Simply freely write on your sheet of paper to release anything that no longer serves you. Release it all on to the paper. 
 
Release anything that no longer aligns with the path you are on, anything you’d like to simply leave behind, any emotions that feel stuck right now. Begin to write them all out on your sheet of paper, feeling their energy leaving you as they hit the paper, releasing them all to create space to call in what is. Checking those fear and ego-based thoughts behind you.  
 
Now, when you are finished, pick up your sheet of paper and really honor the words that are on there. Honor them and thank them for the experiences that your soul incurred in this lifetime and set the intention that these words, stories, thoughts, emotions do not serve you and do not have control over you.  For you are you. The greatest and most sparkly version of you.  
 
And to fully leave behind all that we don’t want to take with us as we move forward. All that we are going to leave behind …. Let’s rip up (or burn, just be safe) everything you wrote out on to your paper just now. 
 
Rip them up and thank these experiences and release them.   If you have the ability and would like to safely burn them – by all means, please do. 
 
Take a big inhale in through the nose really filling yourself up. Hold at the top and give it a big exhale, release out through the mouth. 
 
If it feels good to you, you may wish to cleanse the energy of your space once more before moving into the rest of the ritual. 

​GROUNDING EXERCISE
 
Now that we’ve let go and created the space to bring in and call forth all that is.  Let’s ground down and really feel the ground beneath you. Take a moment of presence to feel your sit bones sink into the space that is supporting you and feel mama earth beneath you, supporting each and every one of us collectively, paying attention to your breath. Slowly begin to close your eyes and ground down into the space.  Breathing in and out, watching the breath. 
 
You are safe and you are protected here, sharing in the energy of tonight under the highest energy of mama moon. Sharing in the breath as we all inhale and exhale together. 
 
Feel yourself letting go and grounding even deeper into the safe loving and protecting energy that the moon brings with her tonight.  Feeling a into this state of presence and grounded energy.
 
(Take a few deep cleansing breaths to prepare for the meditation).

GUIDED MEDITATION
 
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo5O1PG9VKs

​JOURNAL REFLECTIONS
 
Please pull out your journal and take the next couple minutes to simply free write.  Whether you elect to follow some of the following prompts, or simply fill in a list of all the things you are grateful for on this beautiful full moon. It may feel nice to also reflect on anything that came up for you during your meditation and how it feels to connect to your intuition and the moon. 

• In this time of this great full moon, what dreams are you manifesting into the world? 

 

• What are you calling in?  What is something your soul craving more of?  What are you stepping into? 

 

• In what ways are you connecting more deeply to your own soul and calling in your wildest dreams?  

 
 
Mantra to carry with you:  I allow my soul to speak for me and my intuition to guide me
 
 
When you are ready to close out your space, simply take a moment to feel gratitude for all that you experience with this ritual. Remembering that you can come back here at any time. 

I’d love to go back in time with you to the fall of 2019.  I was coming off a season of travel, pr commitments, digital campaigns, web projects, and managing my own business and freelancers. My free time was spent researching the body, the benefits of plants and alternative procedures for autoimmune conditions and chronic illness, while planning my upcoming wedding, and raising our new puppy. Phew! 


A year into my soon-to-be husband's chronic illness journey, I was supporting him the best way I knew how, while also taking a hard look at my own health. 


I was taking a variety of supplements that I had spent a ton of time researching, while also experimenting with the effects of a plant-based lifestyle and the ways my body was responding to gluten, dairy, certain oils, animal proteins, sugar, and other inflammatory ingredients. This whole new world of understanding food as medicine compared to caloric, fat, or carb intake had me absolutely fascinated.


However, in my experimentations as I call them, I was still experiencing chronic constipation, cystic acne, brain fog, food fear, binge/eat restrict patterns, extreme bloat, etc.


There were several things I was missing and had yet to discover until a couple months later…


#1 Missing Ingredient: Gut Health  

• The supplements I was taking were doing nothing for my body because my digestive system wasn’t properly absorbing and digesting them.  I was literally throwing money down the toilet every month.

 

• My chronic constipation was not something I was born with and would have to suffer with my entire life, it was instead the result of a dairy and gluten intolerance I was carrying.
  • PSA: Far too many are quick to judge those who make dietary choices, failing to see the harmful impacts certain foods have on some of us. This is your reminder to please stop judging or comparing what others eat.

 

• The massive candida overgrowth inside my gut was another main culprit to my brain fog, acne, and internal distress. Come to find out this overgrowth was the result of a month of antibiotics I went on back in 2016 and had been growing inside of me for the last 3 years.
  • PSA: Antibiotics are 100% necessary sometimes and are not bad. The missing piece is understanding how to take care of your gut after the fact.

 

• My liver was unable to give me proper support and filtration against everything happening in my body, causing toxins to run ramped inside of me. The liver is also a key facet to bowel regularity and nutrient absorption.

 

• My eating habits (binge/restrict cycles) were due to years of misinformed information about food, a massive chakra imbalance, and years of emotional suppression. Our gut and brain are constantly talking to one another and we must pay attention. Our relationship with food is directly tied to our emotions, inner child trauma, and experiences.

 

• The probiotics were doing nothing because I hadn’t first laid, and continued to build, a foundation of prebiotic fibers.

And the list goes on and on. 


I’ll spare you the details for now as there is so much more to share, such as my sensitivity to certain fragrances and chemicals, the effects stress and caffeine have on my health, the hormone and healing journey that occurred simultaneously due to the years I’d spent on hormonal birth control, and so forth.


As you can imagine, I finally started seeing results when I restarted my journey with a primary focus on my gut - the center point of our systems, the main control panel and root of so much discomfort.


The results I started seeing happened almost immediately after a week’s time and have continued forward to where I sit today.


Now, did I completely reverse my health overnight? No. It took months and months of hard work, dedication, and pure intention. But it was fun all at the same time. I wouldn’t change the journey for anything. When you have years and years and years to heal, it’s going to take time. The longer you put it off, the longer it’s going to take.


I’m also still on the journey, as it never really ends. There isn’t a finish line to bettering ourselves and evolving on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual scale.


And I would never want it to end, because the relationship I hold with my body today is one of the best relationships I could have ever imagined. I see the correlation to my breakouts and stress, hormones, and dairy. I know the day my cycle is going to start. I apologize to my body after eating something that later causes two days of constipation (worth it in the moment). I know what my body needs and the messages she sends to me. I know what it takes to live life to the fullest, while honoring myself at the same time.


What’s funny, but also not funny, is that I always considered myself to be a “healthy person.” I just carried a misconstrued definition of what true health actually meant. A lot of us do, because we haven’t been properly educated on the ways to nurture and care for our bodies.


True health is not counting calories. True health is not fearing fruit or the foods that come from this earth. True health does not come in a box or package or can. True health is not low-carb, low-fat, and artificial flavorings. True health is not avoiding your feelings. True health is not built in the gym. True health is not sitting behind a computer all day. True health doesn’t come in a pill. True health doesn’t come from external gratification.  True health is not a one-size fits all approach.


True health comes from within and is possible for every single person. Including you. 


You simply have to be willing to start somewhere, to make mistakes, keep going, carry an open mind, and have faith that if I could do it, you can too.


If you are ready to get started on building a fresh foundation within your gut, I’d love for you to join me for my 6-Day Gut Health Reset. 


Your world isn’t going to drastically change by the end of day six (physically impossible), but you will see noticeable shifts and a new sense of awareness. 
​
While you can participate in this reset as many times as you need, we will be kicking things off as a group starting this Monday, September 13th. I’d love to see you there! 

Step 1: Clearing 

Clearing space is one of the best ways to transition from season to season and doesn’t have to include a full house or garage cleaning in one weekend. Intention is everything, so by putting the intention to clear one area of your life, the other areas will naturally reap the benefits too. For inspiration check out the following ideas and choose one to play around with as you step into September. 

• A couple suggestions to clear this next week: (pick one!)

 

• Clean your desk space or a folder on your computer. 
• Clear out old photos or text messages off your phone. 
• Remove a couple people you follow or are friends with on social media who aren’t serving the vibe you wish to keep on a daily basis.
• Reorganize your finances or clean out a wallet and/or purse. 
• Clean up your plants, charge them up with fresh soil, and remove any weeds that have crept up in your garden while you’ve been spending time enjoying these long summer days. 
• Clear out your fridge, wipe down your countertops, or organize your pantry.
• Open up your windows, grab a sage bundle, and clear out any stagnant energy from your home or a particular room that needs clearing.
• Pick one drawer or shelf to reorganize. 
• Create space in your closet by selecting 3-5 items to donate for someone else’s use.
• Take care of your physical body and give yourself a detox or reset to clear out any inflammation or imbalances you may have acquired over the summer months. Sign up for my 6-Day Gut Health Reset here. ​

Step 2: Celebrating
 
One of the best ways to show gratitude for where you’ve been and where you are going is by celebrating yourself, your life, or the last few months. Whether you are recognizing any accomplishments, moments of growth, new experiences, time with friends and family, time outdoors, longer days, etc. you can always find something in your life that is worth giving praise to. And if that sounds difficult, how about brushing your teeth each night? Or feeding your body on a daily basis? The small wins are big wins in my book. 

To me, the summer season always has such a playful energy, and with that playfulness, the fall and getting back to “everyday life” can often feel a tad overwhelming at first. I feel as though the entrance of falls comes with both a sense of relief for some needed stability, paired with an equal shock to the system. While I believe life should always be a continuous celebration, check out the below ideas and choose one way you can celebrate while stepping into September. 

• A couple ways to celebrate this next week: (pick one!)
  

• Book a 2-hour spa day from your own home. Carve out 2 hours for yourself and spend them relaxing with soft music, candles, a bubble bath, a face mask, in meditation, with a yoni steam, a warm cup of tea, etc. There are no rules here aside from taking time to yourself. 
  
• Book a massage. As fun as the summer is, it can also be hard on the body. Give your muscles and lymphatic flow a little TLC. 
  
• Enjoy a slow, home cooked dinner with yourself, a partner, or the entire family. Food is meant to be enjoyed and shared, and nothing is better than long dinners followed by soulful conversations and thoughts. 
  
• Grab some bubbly and cheers to you! 
  
• Hang out (distraction free) with your partner and friends or plan a night to all hang over Zoom if that’s more approachable.  Either way, take time to celebrate those in your life. 
  
• Dance! Seriously. When was the last time you moved your body to some music? This is your permission to dance, laugh, sing, and be silly. 
  
• Journal out all your good vibes to harness the energy of summer through your own reflections. What did you learn?  What did you enjoy the most? What are you most looking forward to this fall? What are 10 things you love most about yourself? 
  

I hope you find inspiration from the above clearing + celebrating ritual and that you find this concept supportive to where you are right now. At this current phase of time we also find ourselves transitioning from summer to fall over Virgo season, the earth element. Virgo resembles the healer, practical productivity, wellness-focused drive, and detail + empathy. Natalie Holbrook (meet her on Loving Your Own Soul) reflects on this season as “a time to refine, to cut out what no longer serves and enjoy the bounty of your harvest.” 

As always, I wish you the happiest of new seasons ahead!  If you need support in any way, please do not hesitate to reach out! 

If you feel called, I’d love for you to share your clearing + celebrating ritual with me on Insta @thebrittolson or in our private Facebook group: A Modern Wellness Community. Cheers! ​

​Wahooo – feels nice to be on the other side of this thing. However, I want to start off by saying this virus is no joke. No joke whatsoever and completely unpredictable. 
 
For those of you who are new around here or not familiar, both myself and Dan (my husband), tested positive for COVID-19 a couple weeks ago. While I continue to be without full taste and smell, we can both say we have officially turned the corner.
 
I felt called to talk a little about journey and the ways we found treatment without going into too much detail because everyone’s journey looks so different with this thing.  I don’t want to give anyone any preconceived notions as to what their experience may be like, and instead provide some possibly useful tips to prep your body ahead of time and move through the symptoms as best as possible. 
 
As always this is not intended to come off as medical advice, simply some tips and tricks that worked for us. It is up to you to incorporate them as you see fit, only if they feel in alignment to you and your health.  
 
To start off, let’s answer a few questions: 
 
Did you guys have COVID-19 or the Delta variant? 

• No clue. To my knowledge, discovery of the Delta variant is conducted through genomic sequencing and is done at random. If either of us had Delta, that would be news to us at this point! So, who knows what we had! 
• Our positive test results gave zero indication.

 
Have you guys been vaccinated?

• I believe vaccination is a personal health choice that should be made by you, for you. I don’t believe in sharing this information publicly as we can be easily swayed by what others are doing. I fully believe these decisions must be made for you and your greatest good, outside of any consensus to what others may be doing or thinking. Do yourself a favor and listen to your intuition, and you will never be led astray.  And remember, no one is capable of knowing your body as well as you do. 
  • This is something I have to constantly remind myself of. 

 
Is it really that bad? 

• Yes 100%.  This is no joke and should be taken seriously. 

 
Did you guys end up in the hospital? 

• No. Dan did go in by choice and from the advice from one of his specialty doctors to receive the Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail as Dan’s body doesn’t produce enough antibodies and likely doesn’t have enough T cell or B cells to fight this thing (regardless of vaccination or not).  He received this antibody cocktail at a local hospital as a treatment option but was only there for 2 hours.  
  • Per the instruction from Dan’s specialty doctor, I too attempted to receive the antibody cocktail, however the Universe directed me down a different path. 

 
Did you ever feel like you needed to go to the hospital? 

• No, but Dan said he could understand how some people think that they should go. Did he ever need to, no. But if he didn’t know his body as well as he does, he sees why people go. 

 
Did you ever have pneumonia after your COVID symptoms wore off? 

• Nope.  We both had the right combination of a variety of efforts paired with the intelligence of our bodies that the virus was neutralized early enough that it didn’t end up spreading to our lungs. 
  • Typically, this virus first attaches to the throat before moving to upper respiratory tract before then moving down to the lungs. Ideally you want to take preventative measures to ensure your body is in top condition before the virus hits you and then take immediate action to try to neutralize it as quickly as possible. We’ve also spent the last 2 – 3 years attempting to strip as much inflammation from our bodies as possible, and feel strongly the health of our bodies contributed greatly to our success.

 
What were your symptoms like? 

• Completely different from one another. Without going into too much detail:
  • Dan (34yrs): high fever, body aches, severe headache, chills, sinus pressure, congestion, light cough, exhaustion, fatigue, brain fog
  • Britt (31yrs): minor body aches, light headache and pressure, congestion, slight cough, exhaustion, minor fatigue, brain fog, loss of taste and smell.  Hard to describe but basically felt like my body was completely dried out on the inside for a few days.
    • Note I’m on day 7 (day 11 since COVID symptoms started) of no taste and smell and it’s at about 50/50 at this point.  I’m currently sniffing peppermint oil every day to bring it back and repeating “my taste and smell is coming back” at every opportunity.  Call me crazy but it’s working. 

 
 
Now for a little glimpse into what our COVID-19 protocol ended up looking like: 
 
First of all, to understand what our preventative measures looked like, I could honestly write a book.  If you want to chat with me 1:1 feel free to setup a 45min call where I can answer any questions you might have or check out my Life in Balance 9-week program to get started on your health journey today.  Use code:  FRIENDLOVE to take 44% off the price when paying in full. 
 
SUPPLEMENT REGIME: 
 
Zinc Plus (contains Quercetin) by Organic Olivia - 2 - 4 a day 
Microbiome by Organic Olivia - 2 - 4 dropperfuls a day
Shop: www.organicolivia.com 
*These 2 products developed after both her parents got COVID and almost died in April 2020
 
Immune Shroom by Organic Olivia - 2 daily 
 
Vitamin D3 - 20,000 mg a day 
 
Vitamin C - 500 - 1000 mg a day 
 
Calcium - 1500 mg a day 
 
Systemic Formulas VIVI Virox – 2 a day 
*These were only taken by Britt as Dan received the antibody cocktail around day three or four of showing symptoms and didn’t need an additional immune system stimulant. These supplements support the body during increased times of viral activity.  
 
Mullein Leaf - 600 mg a day 
 
Zen by Cured Nutrition – 1-2 taken before bed 
Assistance sleeping plus packed with magnesium, adaptogen mushrooms, and cbd 
Shop: www.curednutrition.com - code: OLSON for 10% off
 
Probiotic - Garden of Life - 1 daily
 
 
FOOD/NUTRITION: 
 
ENERGYbits - 30 a day (pure Spirulina)
RECOVERYbits - 30 a day (pure Chlorella)
Shop: www.energybits.com - code: LYOS for 20% off 
 
Oranges, Pineapple, Garlic, Onions, Celery, Carrots, Spinach, Wild Blueberries, Dragon Fruit (Pitaya), Bananas, Kiwi, GF toast, Mango, Tomatoes, Miso, Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Green Peas, Rice Noodles, Seaweed, Lemons, Limes, Ginger, Turmeric, Raw Honey, assorted herbal teas
 
WATER
 
Lemon Water – every morning no matter. Some nights we consumed this at night too. 
 
*Mainly ate homemade soups and fruit and lots of water. Energybits helped to provide optimal nutrients and vitamins and filled in any nutrient gaps we may have been missing. Biggest thing was immediately removing any and all inflammatory foods such as: gluten, dairy, sugar, oils, animal meats / products, corn, gums, additives, chemicals, etc. 
 
 
ADDITIONAL TRICKS: 

• Infrared sauna (daily)
• Epsom salt baths 
• Apple cider vinegar steam 
• 20min walk outside (daily)
• 10 – 20 min of natural sunshine (daily) 
• Lots of rest and laying horizontal 
• Breathing exercises 
• Visualization and mantras 
• Stress reduction and positive thinking 
• Boundary setting toward any fear-based conversations
• Reduction in screen time 
• Reiki and energy healing 
• Regeneron Antibody Cocktail – Dan only
• Laughter 

 
 
I think that about sums it up! I’m probably forgetting something but that’s okay because honestly you have to do what makes sense for you and your healing journey during these times. Again, none of the above is intended to serve as medical advice and is simply a preview into how we treated the virus.  If anything, start your treatment upon the smallest of symptoms so that you can stay ahead of it as this virus is no joke.  It completely wiped us out and we both know it could have been so much worse if we didn’t have the appropriate procedures in place. 
 
If you have any questions or would like to chat further feel free to book at 45min call with me or send me an email at britt.ambu@gmail.com.

This “coleslaw” is so light and equally beneficial for your gut (and overall health) at the same time! Plus did you know that cabbage is a great source of Vitamin C?  
I created this recipe because I’ve never been a fan of coleslaw due to the nasty white dressing that is commonly mixed with it. However, crunchy light salads or side dishes are my jam! This recipe is far from your traditional coleslaw but one that you can still serve with all of your favorite backyard BBQ items. After all, a life in balance is a life well lived, you just have to find your own secret sauce that works for you! 
One thing to keep in mind with this recipe is to remember that I don’t encourage measuring and instead intuitive insight. However, to get you started, I’ve included what feel like approximate measurements of each ingredient. If something doesn’t taste right to you, play around with it until it suits your needs.  Remember time in the kitchen is supposed to be fun! 
Feel free to make it your own and don’t forget to tag @ambuwellness on Instagram or Facebook!

Ingredients 

• 1 10oz bag of shredded green cabbage or coleslaw mix 
• 1 cucumber, diced or sliced into matchsticks
• 2 plum tomatoes, diced 
• 1/3 cup kraut – rec. Cleveland Kitchen Beet Red Kraut  
• 3 tbsp flaxseed oil or olive oil 
• 1 ½ tbsp red wine vinegar  
• Black pepper to taste  
• Sea salt to taste 

Instructions 

• In a large bowl, combine shredded cabbage, kraut, and diced cucumber and tomato. 
• Top with recommended measurements of oil, vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
• Stir to combine. Taste to see if you prefer more of any ingredient*. 
• Refrigerate to serve** cold and enjoy! 

*Add more red wine vinegar for a tangier taste. 
**Serve as a side item, consume over a bed of leafy greens, or throw it on top of your (veggie) burger and add some sliced avocado for a twisted burger!